Five to ten dollars a pounds sounds about right.
I wonder if that is all buds.



band beyond description wrote:
> BC-CRIME-MOROCCO-CANNABIS (GENERAL FEATURE) FEATURE-Morocco targets cannab
is
> but production soars
>
>     By Souhail Karam
>
>   RABAT, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The waiter spread the word quickly
> around the Cafe de la Plage: ``Stop rolling, cops are coming!``
>
>   As the manager switched off the reggae music, customers
> hurriedly threw cannabis and rolling paper onto the beach in
> front of the psychedelically painted haunt in the Moroccan
> capital Rabat.
>
>   The plainclothes police who arrived took 30 people with them
> when they left. All are likely to be charged with possessing
> drugs.
>
>   ``They should not be jailing smokers but those who plant
> cannabis. How can you jail someone for consuming a national
> product?'' said Rachid Moudni, a debt collector visiting the cafe
> on the day of the raid.
>
>   Moudni's scepticism mirrors that of many other Moroccans,
> angry at government targeting of users in a country that
> produces most of Europe's cannabis.
>
>   ``Police are doing little to break the supply chain that
> starts with the farmer,'' said a bank employee also at the cafe,
> who asked to be identified only as Mohammed.
>
>   Not far from the shores of southern Europe, Morocco's Rif
> area is the world's leading producer of cannabis. Two thirds of
> the drug circulating in Europe is said to originate from the
> mountainous northern area, where thousands of hectares (acres)
> are planted almost in the open.
>
>   A recent U.N.-sponsored report said cannabis cultivation in
> the Rif, which dates back to the 15th century, has spread
> rapidly over the past two decades from small patches in only two
> provinces to 134,000 hectares (331,100 acres) in six provinces.
>
>   But efforts to target the producers have failed in the face
> of corruption, poverty and the Rif's isolation from the rest of
> the country.
>
>
>
>   TURBULENT PAST
>
>   In the village of Zoumi, a five-hour bumpy ride 220 km (140
> miles) north of Rabat, many farmers have started growing
> cannabis.
>
>   ``A hundred kilos (220 lb) yield 10,000- 20,000 Moroccan
> dirhams ($1,150-$2,300) while 100 kilos of wheat will give you
> only 250 to 300 dirhams ($28-$34),'' said one farmer, who asked
> to be identified only as Mustafa.
>
>   These profit margins have made the drug an attractive
> investment.
>
>   ``A link can be established between cannabis production and
> the relatively weak level of social and economic development of
> the production region,'' said the U.N.-backed report, conducted
> with the government's Agency for the Development of Northern
> Provinces (APDN).
>
>   The Rif's under-development is the result of years of
> isolation during the reign of King Hassan, who died in 1999
> after ruling for 38 years.
>
>   As crown prince in 1959, he led the army to crush an
> uprising by Rifains, who were angered by their absence in the
> first independent Moroccan government after pioneering organized
> resistance to the Spanish protectorate in the area.
>
>   Rabat's hard-line attitude has softened since the throne was
> inherited by Hassan's reform-minded son, King Mohammed, who has
> attempted to break the area's isolation.
>
>   Two thirds of Rifains -- around 100,000 families -- enhance
> their incomes by planting cannabis. But even those families are
> in need, earning an average of just $2,550 a year, according to
> the U.N.-backed report.
>
>
>
>   CORRUPTION RIFE
>
>   In addition to farmers, the cannabis supply chain employs
> thousands, from drivers to dealers, in a country where urban
> unemployment runs to 20 percent and one in five people live
> below the poverty line.
>
>   And farmers in Zoumi say authorities also take a cut of the
> drug cultivation windfall.
>
>   ``From planting, irrigation, harvest to commercialisation,
> the farmer pays money to buy their (authorities) silence,
> otherwise he faces the law,'' said farmer Ahmed.
>
>   ``Authorities take more than half of the revenues,'' added
> Saadia, a farmer in her early 70s.
>
>   Local authorities deny the allegations. A Rabat court is
> currently trying two dealers and 30 officials -- including three
> judges and senior police and customs officials -- accused of
> smuggling cannabis to Europe.
>
>   The APDN's chief Driss Benhima admitted the government had
> been unable to convince farmers to stop cannabis cultivation.
>
>   ``The Moroccan state cannot propose a more profitable
> alternative cultivation,'' he told Reuters.
>
>   He said Morocco was seeking alternatives and wanted to
> develop infrastructure to break farmers' isolation, but ``the
> factors that contribute to the growth of cannabis cultivation
> are stronger than the possibilities to control it.''
>
>
>   (Additional reporting by Zakia Abdennebi)
>
>
>
>  REUTERS
>
>
> Reut 02:04 01-19-04
> --
> like Booie says, folks love their ganja!



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To reach the greek_philosophizer
( who has spent the last seven years being
poisoned and harassed by the gang that follows you
around and whistles  - mostly while living in
COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND, USA)
you may call this number which is in Alexandria,
VIRGINia ,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ( also known as the LAND
OF THE FREE ):
cell :  ( 571 ) 224 - 6315

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