Agriculture Minister Nizar Hani. (Credit: Romy Abou Jaoudeh, from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts)
BEIRUT — Minister of Agriculture Nizar Hani told local television channel MTV on Thursday that the ministry is working toward the establishment of the regulatory authority for a medical and industrial cannabis sector, which will manage licenses and oversee manufacturing.
During MTV's Sar El Waet (It's About Time) program, Hani said that the medical and industrial Cannabis Regulatory Authority will be formed before the end of this month, adding that the list of candidates had already been finalized.
"The estimates and figures announced by the McKinsey [firm] showed that cannabis cultivation adds one billion dollars to the agricultural sector, and this income can be increased if we work in the practical way adopted by several countries," the minister added.
"Cannabis cultivation takes place today in the traditional way," he added, "and the role of the regulatory body is to manage it, nurture it and give exploitation licenses."
In 2020, amid the economic collapse, the Lebanese Parliament approved a draft law that legalizes cannabis cultivation in Lebanon for medical and industrial use. The law would exclusively allow the state to trade in cannabis, which has been grown illicitly and successfully for decades in the eastern Bekaa region.
Before the law was passed, Lebanon had hired international consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in 2018 to advise the country on its economic woes. McKinsey suggested the government legalize cultivation and production of the widely available plant for at least some uses.
Although former agricultural minister Abbas Hajj Hassan said in May 2022 that the industrial hemp dossier would be activated “in the coming days,” the file stalled for years due to delays to form the regulatory authority and political disputes.
