Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2024 / International Journal of Drug Policy / International property rights for Cannabis landraces and terroir products. The case of Moroccan Cannabis and hashish.
Le cannabis marocain, du territoire au terroir
Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2022 / Cahiers d'EMAM / Le cannabis marocain, du territoire au terroir.
L’objectif de cet article consiste à préciser les concepts-clés de terroir et de variété de pays en les appliquant à la spécificité de la culture du cannabis et de la production de haschich dans le Rif (Maroc), en montrant notamment comment et pourquoi tant le terroir que la variété de pays sont issus du territoire autant qu’ils le caractérisent.
C’est la question de l’existence, du devenir et de la valorisation d’un terroir du cannabis, et plus particulièrement du haschich dans le Rif que pose cet article en s’appuyant sur des définitions précises et opératoires des concepts de terroir et de variété de pays, considérés localement entre « tradition » et « modernité ».
Poser la question du terroir du cannabis au Maroc implique de considérer non seulement l’histoire marocaine du cannabis et de ses produits dérivés, mais aussi, par voie de conséquence, d’interroger les questions relatives à la tradition, à l’autochtonie (et à l’allochtonie), à l’authenticité, et enfin à la légitimité (et même à la légalité) : autant de concepts sans lesquelles il est difficile d’aborder la question, controversée et même polémique, de la production de cannabis dans la région du Rif. In fine, la définition d’un terroir du haschich ne doit pas seulement permettre de créer de la valeur ajoutée pour l’économie locale : c’est aussi la conservation et même la restauration d’une production agricole adaptée à son milieu physique et biologique et garante de l’équilibre et de la stabilité d’une région qu’elle doit permettre.
Moroccan hashish as an example of a cannabis terroir product
Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2022 / GeoJournal.
This article aims at clarifying the concepts of terroir and landrace in the context of cannabis cultivation and hashish production. Taking the Rif region of Morocco as a case study, it shows in particular how and why both terroir and landrace come from the territory they belong to as much as they characterize it. This article raises the question of the existence, future, and development of a cannabis terroir, based on precise and operational definitions of the concepts of terroir and landrace, considered
locally in historical, geographical, and cultural terms. Raising the question of a cannabis terroir in Morocco implies considering the Moroccan history of cannabis and its end products, and, as a consequence, the related issues of tradition, autochthony (and allochthony), authenticity, and finally legitimacy (and even legality): all concepts required to address the controversial and even polemical issue of cannabis production in the Rif region. This article concludes that the existence and conservation of a hashish terroir can benefit the Rif region in multiple ways: by improv ing the image and reputation of Moroccan hashish, by increasing its market value, and by benefiting the
local, regional, and national economy. Yet, identifying a cannabis terroir also implies to acknowledge its historical, geographical, cultural, and environmental components in order to protect them. Therefore, identifying and promoting a terroir can prove beneficial economically, environmentally, and culturally as it implies conservation policies and actions that can benefit the balance and stability of a given region, in this case the Rif region of Morocco.
The Post-1950s Rise of Illegal Opium in Asia
Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2022 / The Oxford Handbook of Global Drug History.
Opium, the ancient narcotic, has fascinated the West where tastes for the exotic arose alongside British and French colonialism. The mystery of poppy origins is equaled by the opacity of the two largest illegal opium-producing regions that emerged after 1950: the so-called Golden Triangle, in Burma (Myanmar) in mainland Southeast Asia; and Golden Crescent, in Afghanistan, in Southwest Asia. Illegal opium production in these two regions developed as part of the deep historical, geographic, and political complexity that explain their remoteness, lawlessness, and protracted armed conflicts. As a result, scholars of various disciplines have long researched opium production, trade, consumption, and traditions. This chapter examines the causes and dynamics of illegal opium production, including how illegal opium production has benefited from the turmoil of Asian history and geopolitics, from synergies between war economies and drug economies, from underdevelopment and poverty, and from decades of failed often-counterproductive anti-drug policies.
Why the concept of terroir matters for drug cannabis production
Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2022 / GeoJournal.
This article questions how the concepts of terroir and landrace are relevant for the drug cannabis industry at a time when cannabis legalisation and its associated ‘‘green rush’’ pose a growing threat to both the genetic and cultural diversity that is associated with historical small cannabis farming. The article draws on a multidisciplinary approach based on both extensive secondary sources and primary research.
A large and detailed definition work first informs what terroir and landrace are and most especially what they have in common, from the typicity of their end products, to how they owe their existence to geographic remoteness and isolation, and to how tradition and change (or modernity) affect their development and conservation. Defining and connecting terroirs and landraces in historical, anthropological, environmental, and of course chemical terms, makes it possible to determine how cannabis terroirs compare with and differ from other terroirs and plants, based on the rare dual qualities of the plant (being both a food and a drug) but also, given the illegality of its cultivation, on the specific territorial characteristics of its production areas, notably their geographic remoteness and isolation, their politico-territorial control deficits, etc.
The article concludes that acknowledging and protecting cannabis terroirs and landraces matters because it favours the conservation and the promotion of a biological, cultural, and sensorial diversity that has endured illegality and repression but is now threatened by legalisation.
The Golden Triangle: Regression then Reform?
Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2021 / In: Transforming the War on Drugs. Warriors, Victims and Vulnerable Regions (ed. Idler & Garzon Vegara) / The Golden Triangle: Regression then Reform?