Position Paper by Morocco Delegate of MOROCCO Felix Cahyo Kuncoro Jakti, Civil Engineering, 2009 Topic: Illicit Drug

Trade Morocco plays an important role in the international drug trade, being worlds major producer of hashish, the resin of cannabis, in addition to acting as a transit point for South American cocaine to move into Europe. European consumption has long been a pull factor for Moroccan hashish production. Since Morocco is the Europes main supplier for hashish, it comes as no surprise Spain is the main port of entry. Whether it is true that Spain and France contributed in developing the cannabis cultivation during their occupancies in Morocco, both countries respective growing of hashish demand has also encouraged its production these days. According to the report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, although street crime in Morocco is generally estimated at a low rate, the drug trade deeply affects the crime situation in the country. Networks of drug traffickers are often involved in the drug-related crimes, namely, money-laundering, human trafficking, smuggling of migrants and contrabands, that also revolve around the corruption in the body of leadership and the weak law enforcement. The Moroccan anti-drug trafficking campaign of the mid-1990s was also partly a response to the pressure from the international financial institution and European Union (EU), with whom Morocco was negotiating a Free Trade Agreement. In the first ten months of 2008, authorities in Morocco destroyed nearly 4,400 hectares of cannabis plantations. Besides establishing some boards in buttressing the governments plan opposing illicit drug trade, the monarchy government itself has cooperated with European Union and also other countries, like US and Colombia, in the war against drugs. To avoid drug trade to be controlled by the authorities, government has made the corruption-cleansing action in its own bodies. However, there is still indication that the number of hashish produced and entering Europe is still increased. The government of Morocco, as cited by US 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, has stated its commitment to the total eradicated of cannabis production but government has warned the crackdown will profoundly affect the livelihoods of about 3 millions Moroccan citizens, or about 10 percents of total population. Thus, given the economical and historical economic dependence on cannabis in the northern region, eradication is only feasible if accompanied by a well-designed development strategy involving reform of local government and a highly subsidised crop-substitution program. Since the goal has proven to be very difficult to achieve, as a leading country in hashish production, Moroccan government urges the UN committees to find for the economic alternative-proposal in overcoming sudden loss of income for the countries that depend on the narco-plants cultivation. Since Morocco is the largest exporting country of hashish for Europe, government also urges the European countries to help paying for the crop conversion. As a transit-point country in illicit drug trade, the government urges the UN to take further investigation in order to obtain reliable data about the global drug trade network, thus Moroccan and other countries can make the more effective border policy to inhibit the drug trade goes beyond boundaries. It should be reiterated that the ultimate goal is to call for solidarity of drug-producer, transit, or consumer countries to abolish the threat to health for humanity, social order and safety, which the illicit drug trade does.