alternative development

  • lebanon cannabis grapesHashish cultivation is widespread in the Bekaa Valley with many relying on the illegal crop for their livelihoods. In an attempt to curb the illicit trade, the Lebanese authorities periodically raid the area to destroy the crops and arrest its producers. Many think the hashish business is easy and profitable, but this is untrue. In the dry land of the Bekaa Valley, hashish plantations are an alluring option for many in the poor, often lawless region. While police raids have not been frequent since the onset of the war in Syria, the price drop that followed the closure of the border means the business is still difficult. While authorities have repeatedly pledged to help farmers find an alternative source of income to hashish, to this day the Coteaux d’Heliopolis Cooperative remains the only one providing a credible solution.

  • indonesia cannabis burning acehMarijuana has a long history in Aceh, so much so that it's still totally common for locals to offer some to visitors. But the province's associations with weed have also been something of an open secret in Indonesia, home to some of the harshest anti-drug laws on Earth.The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) now claims to have decreased the number of marijuana plantations in Aceh significantly. But it seems like the claim is not entirely accurate, since BNN agents continue to find new plantations in Aceh, including the country's biggest yet last October. For the past three years, the BNN has continued to implement a program called the Grand Design Alternative Development (GDAD) that aims to persuade farmers in Aceh to stop planting weed and switch to corn, and other and supposedly more superior commodities

  • mexico drug warThe United States’ anti-drug policy in Latin America needs to change if Washington is to effectively combat a problem worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, a U.S. congressional commission will say in a bipartisan report. The 117-page report of the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission urges “smarter” interagency policies led by the U.S. State Department to reduce the supply of dangerous drugs. It also calls on authorities to combat money laundering by blocking the flow of illicit funds using cryptocurrencies and complex cross-border financial transactions. It is the result of 18 months of research into the “war on drugs” that has cost billions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars without ending high rates of violence and corruption in much of the western hemisphere.

  • un common position coverIn November 2018, the UN System CEB adopted the ‘UN system common position supporting the implementation of the international drug control policy through effective inter-agency collaboration’, expressing the shared drug policy principles of all UN organisations and committing them to speak with one voice. The CEB is the highest-level coordination forum of the UN system, convening biannual meetings of the heads of all UN agencies, programmes and related institutions, chaired by the UN Secretary General. 

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  • One of the nation's leading ganja advocates, Ras Iyah V, has welcomed Prime Minister Andrew Holness' announcement that the pilot project for the Alternative Development Programme (ADP), which will provide an avenue for small farmers to benefit from the ganja industry, is scheduled to start by March this year. But with less than two months to go, and what he says has been no word from the government, Iyah V said stakeholders are concerned that the pilot projects slated for Accompong, St Elizabeth and Orange Hill in Westmoreland will not be executed in a timely manner.