Rabat - Interior Minister Mohamed Hassad announced, on Wednesday in Rabat, that the huge anti-drug efforts made by Morocco will enable it, in the short run, to reduce cannabis cultivated areas to less than 30,000 ha, with a complete eradication in prospect.
"Our goal, in the short run, is to reduce these surface areas to less than 30,000 cultivated hectares," said Hassad at a joint press conference with communication minister, government spokesperson Mustapha El Khalfi and minister delegate for the Interior Charki Drais.
Morocco has always dealt with the issue of cannabis cultivation with transparency and resolve, away from any useless bidding, said the minister in response to statements by some Algerian officials on anti-drug fight.
He added that Morocco has adopted a voluntary approach with the United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to progressively reduce the cultivation and trafficking of cannabis, saying that a joint investigation with the UN body enabled to assess the cultivated areas to 134,000 ha, an area that have being reduced to 47,000 ha, that is a decease of 65%.
He pointed out that the fight against the networks of drug trafficking led to the seizure, during the first six months of 2014, of over 100 tons of Chira and the dismantling of 98 trafficking networks.