Asharq Al-Awsat
Morocco’s Justice and Development Party (PJD) has called for carrying out a study on the impact of legalizing the use of cannabis in the country.
The party’s general-secretariat suggested opening a “public discussion” in this regard and expanding “institutional consultations” before making a final decision.
It explained in a statement Monday that its members have been considering the “implications of the bill on using cannabis for medical and industrial uses.”
The government will convene Thursday to continue examining the draft bill on the legal use of cannabis. The vote over the issue had been delayed on two separate occasions due to the controversy surrounding it.
The dispute had prompted the resignation of Idris al-Azmi, head of the PJD’s National Council.
Abdelilah Benkirane, the party’s former secretary-general, threatened to resign if its deputies voted in favor of the bill at parliament’s House of Representatives and House of Councilors.
The Interior Ministry had proposed the bill after the World Health Organization approved the use of cannabis for medical purposes and the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs removed it from a list of dangerous drugs.
