Lebanon becomes first Arab country to legalise cannabis for medical use

[Old School]

Moroccan Hashish is mostly the Hashish that enters Europe and it has the best reputation of them all along with Lebanese. Usually this trade and distribution is controlled by Moroccan gangs and networks. Spain for instance is flooded with Moroccan Hashish. France and Netherlands too. As long as there is a profitable market for it (Europe) this illegal trade will continue and local farmers will cultivate it rather than actual edible agricultural products whose market price is much cheaper.

Not much different from what we see in Afghanistan, Mexico, Peru etc. and the existing opium and coca production.

Harvesting cannabis plants for a purely medicinal use, in the perfect world, should be regulated by the state only and profits from said production should be distributed for the health care system in each respective country by the state. Of course that is unlikely to ever occur in practice.

Given the increasing degeneracy of the Muslim youth and world as a whole nowadays, such laws, will just open up a pandora box where eventually all the ills from the liberal West will be copied. We already see it in a Muslim majority country like Turkey (albeit heavily influenced by the West in the past 150 + years) where prostitution is legal, alcohol, homosexuality etc. Talk of a third gender (like in the West) will probably reach Turkey eventually as well and all the other ills of the liberal West.

Simpletons here will scream and cry "Wahhabi" but I don't care. My views are irrespective of religious beliefs and besides my views are shared by millions of Europeans as well that have nothing to do with Islam.

I stick to the scientific/technological/economic exchange/field/welfare states (GCC doing better on this front than most European/Western states anyway) and leave everything else as it is not worthy to copy.

Maybe with the exception of open political discourse but that was once something that Arabs could pride ourselves on when Europe were in its dark age during the Middle Ages. A return to that would be a good thing as well but it has nothing to do with the West as such.



Both countries and people are great overall. Each country and people have their idiots and bad elements. No need to favor country x over country y due to politics when never visiting said countries and nothing very little.

Nowadays, due to the internet and google, everyone pretends to be an expert about everything but in reality ignorance is still extreme by large in all spheres of the society.

I would be a complete and utter idiot if I based my perception of Pakistan and Pakistanis based on PDF alone. No offense. Or any country or people for that matter.

This forum/the internet is full of people with an agenda and bias. I remember some ridiculous thread about KSA being posted here (supposedly) where 10-15 carefully cherrypicked photos from KSA (turned out to be of Afro-Arabs from Yemen in the Rub' al-Khali desert, lol) were somehow propagandized as even remotely representative for KSA 100 + years ago. A region of the world that is home to some of the oldest artifacts on the planet and cities. Just a joke but that was the agenda created to somehow showcase the reality before oil.

Which is funny as 99.99% of the achievements of Arabs were accomplished millennia/centuries before oil was even discovered.

But this is PDF/Internet for you. Some people with inferiority complexes, obsession etc. need an outlet to venture their frustrations in behind their small computer screens to feel better apparently.

I extensively travelled in the Arab world from the very Eastern gulf coast to all the way to Moroccan Atlantic coast. The Arab study will be incomplete unless it is studied in the contexts of the Greco-Roman civilization at the latest. Then we have the Phoenician, Sumerians, Akkadians and so on. Arabs are the equivalent of modern day American and old day Roman who unified and integrated everyone from the known world at their time regardless of their ethnicity.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

I extensively travelled in the Arab world from the very Eastern gulf coast to all the way to Moroccan Atlantic coast. The Arab study will be incomplete unless it studied in contexts of the Greco-Roman civilization at the latest. Then we have the Phoenician, Sumerians, Akkadians and so on. Arabs are the equivalent of modern day American and old day Roman who unified and integrated everyone from the known world at their time regardless of their ethnicity.

To put it short, the Arab world is the cradle of civilization and home to the oldest recorded civilizations in the world (to date at least) and the most influential ones in the ancient world. Rome/Greece came much larger and where civilizations greatly influenced by much older icivlizaitons native to the Arab world. Not much different to the Persians that appeared in history some 2500 years ago and copied almost everything from us Semites (their entire entity was a copy of the previous Assyrian empire that collapses due to civil wars just as they rose, their bureaucracy, their pre-Islamic alphabet, their titles (the title of kings of kings is an ancient Semitic title), the use of Aramaic as a lingua franca (which is a Semitic language closely related to Arabic), the art, the architecture, religion etc. Even their Nowruz is an ancient Babylonian spring festival.

Anyway in our lands agriculture, mathematics, the alphabet, writing, poetry, science, monotheism, the first domestication of animals, the horse, camel (the two Ferraris of the ancient world), wheel, geometry, the first cities etc. appeared. List is endless.

What binds the Arab world, aside from geography (you can walk from Oman to Morocco and never leave an Arab country), is the common racial (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic) heritage, common geography, common language (Arabic) and previously other common Semitic/Afro-Asiatic languages, common religion (Islam) and previously common religions/philosophies etc.

There is a very good reason, due to history, why the Arab world has the geography it has and why Arabization occurred this quickly and seemingly uneventful as it did in the Arab world. While it did not occur similarly in non-Semitic speaking areas of the early Muslim world.

Many people don't even realize that Arabia itself was Arabized at the advent of Islam, in particular Yemen, which foolishly/falsely is parroted as being the origin of Arabs in certain non-academic circles online.

BTW, IVC, the oldest known civilization in Pakistan and one of the oldest as well, had very close trade ties to native civilizations found in the Arab world, mostly Sumer in modern-day Southern Iraq and Dilmun and Magan etc. in Eastern Arabia.

Even looking at Islamic history objectively, the height of the Islamic civilization occurred under the Rashidun, Umayyad (the early one and the Al-Andalus period/exodus) and Abbasid. The most accomplished Shia dynasty was also the Fatimid one. With the Arab heartland being the center.

Nowadays, compared to the historical weight and accomplishments, the Arab world is quite frankly an embarrassment politically and on most other fields despite it hurting me to say this but it is the reality. 500 + years of darkness. The downfall started with the Mongols some 750 years ago. Became clear in 1517.

I am hopeful about the future, as the potential is enormous, but it requires fundamental changes on most fronts. The only solution is Arab integration as only jointly can the challenges be solved. Each Arab country cannot solve them alone. If 100 times more diverse states such as India, Russia, USA etc. can unite, the Arab world should as well.

The problem is that it is not in the interests of the global powers and they have been doing everything to keep the Arab world as weak and divided as possible and our "Muslim brothers" (Iran, Turkey nowadays mainly) are not interested in that and exploiting the situation to their benefit in war torn Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen etc. Arab regime decisions and policies are not helping either. A mess lately.

I could write a trilogy about this topic so I rather stop now.

AS @camelguy would write it, we need the sharp sword of Arabization to hit our heads collectively.

 

[Old School]

To put it short, the Arab world is the cradle of civilization and home to the oldest recorded civilizations in the world (to date at least) and the most influential ones in the ancient world. Rome/Greece came much larger and where civilizations greatly influenced by much older icivlizaitons native to the Arab world. Not much different to the Persians that appeared in history some 2500 years ago and copied almost everything from us Semites (their entire entity was a copy of the previous Assyrian empire that collapses due to civil wars just as they rose, their bureaucracy, their pre-Islamic alphabet, their titles (the title of kings of kings is an ancient Semitic title), the use of Aramaic as a lingua franca (which is a Semitic language closely related to Arabic), the art, the architecture, religion etc. Even their Nowruz is an ancient Babylonian spring festival.

Anyway in our lands agriculture, mathematics, the alphabet, writing, poetry, science, monotheism, the first domestication of animals, the horse, camel (the two Ferraris of the ancient world), wheel, geometry, the first cities etc. appeared. List is endless.

What binds the Arab world, aside from geography (you can walk from Oman to Morocco and never leave an Arab country), is the common racial (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic) heritage, common geography, common language (Arabic) and previously other common Semitic/Afro-Asiatic languages, common religion (Islam) and previously common religions/philosophies etc.

There is a very good reason, due to history, why the Arab world has the geography it has and why Arabization occurred this quickly and seemingly uneventful as it did in the Arab world. While it did not occur similarly in non-Semitic speaking areas of the early Muslim world.

Many people don't even realize that Arabia itself was Arabized at the advent of Islam, in particular Yemen, which foolishly/falsely is parroted as being the origin of Arabs in certain non-academic circles online.

BTW, IVC, the oldest known civilization in Pakistan and one of the oldest as well, had very close trade ties to native civilizations found in the Arab world, mostly Sumer in modern-day Southern Iraq and Dilmun and Magan etc. in Eastern Arabia.

Even looking at Islamic history objectively, the height of the Islamic civilization occurred under the Rashidun, Umayyad (the early one and the Al-Andalus period/exodus) and Abbasid. The most accomplished Shia dynasty was also the Fatimid one. With the Arab heartland being the center.

Nowadays, compared to the historical weight and accomplishments, the Arab world is quite frankly an embarrassment politically and on most other fields despite it hurting me to say this but it is the reality. 500 + years of darkness. The downfall started with the Mongols some 750 years ago. Culminated in 1517.

Look at the old Greco-Roman areas in Europe and you have the answer. They are now being ruled by Saxon tribes from the north west under the guise of EU. Not any Roman derivative but Anglo-Saxon language is the dominant one. This is the evolutionary trajectory when people are slow to adaptation. The Natural selection process hates failure to adaptation. It is never too late to learn from past mistakes and move forward. Some long serving leaders did some serious long term damages because they were pre occupied with silly businesses for the last 50 years.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Look at the old Greco-Roman areas in Europe and you have the answer. They are now being ruled by Saxon tribes from the north west under the guise of EU. Not any Roman derivative but Anglo-Saxon language is the dominant one. This is the evolutionary trajectory when people are slow to adaptation. The Natural selection process hates failure to adaptation. It is never too late to learn from past mistakes and move forward. Some long serving leaders did some serious long term damages because they were pre occupied with silly businesses for the last 50 years.

Speaking about the Greco-Roman civilization, due to populism in Europe and migration (most of it not of Arab migrants actually - in this case mostly Syrians), including in Southern Europe, Islamophobia and Arabophobia have gained inroads, and created a collective amnesia in those countries of Europe.

They have forgotten that they share ancient civilization ties with the Arab world, even genetic (the Neolithic farmers that colonized Europe and have left the biggest genetic impact on Europe, in particular Southern Europe -originated in today's Arab world) ties, geography, much of their Renaissance should be owed to Arabs/Muslims achievements during the Islamic Era and preservation of old Greek works, agricultural and cuisine (read about the Arab Agricultural revolution or the Phoenicians and what they spread of fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs into Europe) etc.

Even funnier, the best preserved ancient Roman artifacts, cities, colosseums are located in the Arab world, mostly Northern Africa but even remains in modern-day Northern KSA, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon etc.

Several Roman emperors had Arab origins too.

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/many...the-middle-east-genetic-history-shows.642497/

But since we became Muslims we have been seen as the "enemy" even though historically at least, relations between Rome and Greece and civilizations in the Arab world, was mostly cordial.

The irony is also that a strong and united Arab world is in the best interests of neighboring Europe/West. Just for the simple reason to act like a bulwark against the enormous population boom that will occur in Sub-Saharan Africa that will make the current migrations towards Europe look like a giant joke in comparison.

But most leaders/people are short-sighted and blinded by bias/ignorance. We as Arabs are more busy engaging in pointless infighting and actively destroying our own countries in countries like Yemen, Libya, Syria etc. Sadly.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

@Old School

What is hilarious is, much like alcohol (which is an Arabic word and the first alcoholic beverages have been recorded in the Arab world), Hashish was first recorded in the Arab world too and the name is Arabic as well. It literally means hay and dried herb.

The first attestation of the term "hashish" is in a pamphlet published in Cairo in 1123 CE, accusing Nizari Muslims of being "hashish-eaters".[8] The 13th-century Ibn Taymiyyah prohibited the use of hashish; he mentioned that it was introduced to Levant with the Mongol invasion (throughout the 13th century).[9] Smoking did not become common in the Old World until after the introduction of tobacco: until the 1500s hashish in the Muslim world was consumed as an edible.[10]
​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish

Some Sufi (we know their strange inventions, lol) orders in the Arab world have used it as a drug. It is said that coffee started in a similar fashion. It was used by Sufis in Yemen and Hijaz as a stimulant.

The history of coffee dates back to the 15th century, and possibly earlier with a number of reports and legends surrounding its first use. The earliest substantiated evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree is from the early 15th century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen,[1] spreading soon to Mecca and Cairo​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coffee

The word coffee is also of Arabic origin btw.

 

[Old School]

@Old School

What is hilarious is, much like alcohol (which is an Arabic word and the first alcoholic beverages have been recorded in the Arab world), Hashish was first recorded in the Arab world too and the name is Arabic as well. It literally means hay and dried herb.

The first attestation of the term "hashish" is in a pamphlet published in Cairo in 1123 CE, accusing Nizari Muslims of being "hashish-eaters".[8] The 13th-century Ibn Taymiyyah prohibited the use of hashish; he mentioned that it was introduced to Levant with the Mongol invasion (throughout the 13th century).[9] Smoking did not become common in the Old World until after the introduction of tobacco: until the 1500s hashish in the Muslim world was consumed as an edible.[10]
​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish

I saw Hashish for the first time while living with people from the Berber tribes of Nador, in North Morocco. It is still legal to grow it in North Moroccan Berber areas.

 

[Mirzah]

Greater Syria/Sham is a legacy of the Umayyad Caliphate/Empire.

That SNNP map is similar to various periods of the Assyrian Empire. Assyrians were a Semitic people that migrated from Arabia.

Anyway I fully support regional Arab integration and for regional Arab political blocs to emerge. So obviously Syria and Lebanon should be a part of the same entity again. Federal or non-federal, it does not matter, as long as political, economic, military etc. integration increases.

BTW cannabis is for *******

The real deal is qat/khat.

In all seriousness, If I had absolute power, I would burn all the cannabis and qat fields. Even in KSA the authorities turn a blind eye to extreme South (regions neighboring Yemen) where some mountain villages engage in qat farming and chew it as an ancient social custom. Northern Yemen (Houthis stronghold today) is completely consumed by it. Khat plants require a lot of water so it destroys the local economy and agricultural sector as well. People shifted from coffee, tea, fruit/vegetable production to khat production. Things are slowly moving in the right direction but more needs to be done.

When it comes to substances I have zero tolerance for that filth.

Syria needs golan heights back from israel before joining lebanon.
It seems Arabs have given up on getting golan heights back, sad.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Syria needs golan heights back from israel before joining lebanon.
It seems Arabs have given up on getting golan heights back, sad.

Arabs = the incompetent Al-Assad regime. From what I am aware of the Golan Heights are only recognized as Israeli territory by the US, the surrogate father and protector of modern-day Israel. Syria also lost Hatay to Turkey with the blessing of France after a rigged vote. Anyway history is full of territorial exchanges and as Arabs we cannot complain given the enormous size of our territory that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea and from the Mediterranean (we have the longest Mediterranean coastline) to the Indian Ocean.

Anyway I think, in the future, that the Golan Heights will be returned to Syria if peace will be signed between Israel and Syria and the Arab world recognize Israel collectively and sign the peace, simultaneously with the recognization of a Palestinian state. Don't see another long-term solution.

If you look at the demographics, Israel is already 20% Arab (Palestinian) and 2/3 of all Israeli Jews are Arab Jews (Jews with ancestral ties to the Arab world). If they annexed Gaza and the West Bank in some alternative universe, Israel would no longer be a majority Jewish state. So they have no other option but sign a peace deal (long-term) and find some kind of two-state solution or a federal state with equal rights for everyone.

I saw Hashish for the first time while living with people from the Berber tribes of Nador, in North Morocco. It is still legal to grow it in North Moroccan Berber areas.

It must have been in the Al-Rif region of Morocco, am I right? This is the main region of Morocco where hashish is grown.

Usually people from the Al-Rif region engage in this business in Morocco.

 

[Old School]

It must have been in the Al-Rif region of Morocco, am I right? This is the main region of Morocco where hashish is grown.

Usually people from the Al-Rif region engage in this business in Morocco.

Yes. Very hospitable and friendly are these Shal'ha people. Their foods are simply mind-blowing. There is also a Spanish enclave there called Melillia.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Yes. Very hospitable and friendly are these Shal'ha people. Their foods are simply mind-blowing. There is also a Spanish enclave there called Melillia.

Moroccan cuisine, like any cuisine in the Arab world, depends hugely on the specific region in question. For instance in KSA there are significant regional differences that also impacts cuisine as well due to the huge geography. It is no different in Morocco. Although you have familiar ingredients being used across all regions, all ethnic groups and tribes/clans.

There are actually two tiny Spanish enclaves. Ceuta is the other. On the other hand Gibraltar remains British and prior to 1492, Spain was ruled by Arab/Berber dynasties for almost 800 years.

BTW as you might know, Moroccan cuisine tends to be more spicier than the average Arab/Middle Eastern cuisine. A feature that it shares with Yemeni/Arabian cuisine. Hence my personal likeness for it as well as I prefer something in between the more herb-like inspired foods and the more spicy one. I feel that Pakistani cuisine (at least what I have tasted so far) tends to be a good mix between spicy and non-spicy food.

Anyway to stick to the topic of the thread:

Courtesy of Hezbollah and allied farming clans.

 

[Old School]

Moroccan cuisine, like any cuisine in the Arab world, depends hugely on the specific region in question. For instance in KSA there are significant regional differences that also impacts cuisine as well due to the huge geography. It is no different in Morocco. Although you have familiar ingredients being used across all regions, all ethnic groups and tribes/clans.

There are actually two Spanish enclaves. Ceuta is the other. On the other hand Gibraltar remains British and prior to 1492, Spain was ruled by Arab/Berber dynasties for almost 800 years.

Yes. The Moors were the branch of Umayyads who ruled Iberia for 8 centuries and changed the world. They even accompanied Columbus in the discovery of Americas. A lot of South American cuisines are attributed to the expelled Moors. Moroccan cuisine is essentially a fusion of Bedouin and Moor cuisine. I am trying to set up a Bedouin Zarb in my backyard during this lock down time in Miami.

 

[Mirzah]

Arabs = the incompetent Al-Assad regime.

I was thinking about KSA, EGY, UAE, Jordan. How are they supporting Syria in getting Golan back?

Anyway history is full of territorial exchanges and as Arabs we cannot complain

this attitude is not good akhi, Israelis fight for every square mile as if its life or death

in the future, that the Golan Heights will be returned to Syria if peace will be signed between Israel and Syria

that's the only way? so many billions of dollars of equipment purchases, huge armies of KSA, UAE, EGY what are they for then? not asking you to go to war but at least put some pressure on israel and help out Syria, israelis are bombing syria whenever they like.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Yes. The Moors were the branch of Umayyads who ruled Iberia for 8 centuries and changed the world. They even accompanied Columbus in the discovery of Americas. A lot of South American cuisines are attributed to the expelled Moors. Moroccan cuisine is essentially a fusion of Bedouin and Moor cuisine. I am trying to set up a Bedouin Zarb in my backyard during this lock down time in Miami.

You are a knowledgable person with a great understanding of the history of the Arab world from what I have seen so far. That is a rarity on PDF at times it seems.

Arabs had a profound and lasting influence on Spanish/Portuguese civilization and culture. From agriculture, cuisine, music, literature, poetry, language (10.000's of Spanish and Portuguese words are of Arabic origin and used to this day - there were many more in the past), architecture, the names of cities (a lot of the names of large cities in Spain have their origin in Arabic - say for instance the capital Madrid) and obviously also the genetic impact.

Later the same Spaniards and Portuguese colonized Latin America and helped spread Arab genes to Latin America.

Later you have massive Arab migrations to Latin America. Actually the largest Arab diaspora in the world lives in Latin America. Some 30-40 million Latin people worldwide are of Arab ancestry.

This thread might interest you.

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/arab-world-and-latin-america-cooperation-thread.310970/

That is why Arabs and Latin people tend to have very cordial ties and have an affinity for each other. We are also sometimes difficult to tell apart.

It is a beautiful story/heritage actually and as someone that speaks/understands Spanish, I notice the deep connections even more.

I was thinking about KSA, EGY, UAE, Jordan. How are they supporting Syria in getting Golan back?


this attitude is not good akhi, Israelis fight for every square mile as if its life or death


that's the only way? so many billions of dollars of equipment purchases, huge armies of KSA, UAE, EGY what are they for then? not asking you to go to war but at least put some pressure on israel and help out Syria, israelis are bombing syria whenever they like.

I am sure that you are aware of Syria's (Al-Assad regime's) relations with neighboring Arab countries since the Al-Assad family reached power. It was the same useless Al-Assad dynasty (Hafiz) that lost the Golan Heights in the first place. In fact we are talking about such a treacherous regime that they failed to have the best of ties with the only other Arab Ba'ath regime (Iraq) but instead preferred to conspire against it and support Iran over Iraq. Later during the First Gulf War they joined the US/international coalition against Iraq. Only in 2003 did they change their melody.

It might not be a good attitude but nevertheless the ground reality. Moreover this is something that our Syrian brethren have to ask themselves about.

I am sure that you must know that Israel is under the protection of the US/West since the inception, the same West that allowed it to become a nuclear armed state, so any wars (like in the past) will be fought against the entire US/West simultaneously.

Anyway that conflict won't be solved by a war. Times have changed. And if some wide scale devastating war erupts it will be the end of everyone, Israel included.

 

[Old School]

You are a knowledgable person with a great understanding of the history of the Arab world from what I have seen so far. That is a rarity on PDF at times it seems.

Arabs had a profound and lasting influence on Spanish/Portuguese civilization and culture. From agriculture, cuisine, music, literature, poetry, language (10.000's of Spanish and Portuguese words are of Arabic origin and used to this day - there were many more in the past), architecture, the names of cities (a lot of the names of large cities in Spain have their origin in Arabic - say for instance the capital Madrid) and obviously also the genetic impact.

Later the same Spaniards and Portuguese colonized Latin America and helped spread Arab genes to Latin America.

Later you have massive Arab migrations to Latin America. Actually the largest Arab diaspora in the world lives in Latin America. Some 30-40 million Latin people worldwide are of Arab ancestry.

This thread might interest you.

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/arab-world-and-latin-america-cooperation-thread.310970/

That is why Arabs and Latin people tend to have very cordial ties and have an affinity for each other. We are also sometimes difficult to tell apart.

It is a beautiful story/heritage actually and as someone that speaks/understands Spanish, I notice the deep connections even more.

Arab identity is more cultural and philosophical than DNA. Islam has a very strong Greco-Roman influence due to the great contributions of the Umayyads. None of the Roman emperor was actually from Rome. Anyone could come to Rome and become A Roman citizen by hard intellectual capabilities. Sane applied to Early Islam. Coptic, Habash, Persian, Mongol, Greek, Berber etc all were allowed to become Mumin and embrace the Islamic empire where Arab was the lingua franca. Just like today's America were English is the lingua franca. Since tribalism had started to take root in the middle East, that philosophy was gone.

We need to revive the long lost Islamic-Arabic philosophy which made them a thunder Strom of the history of mankind. Khalid ibn Walid invented the philosophy of Blitzkrieg even though he didn't have the luxury of Luftwaffe. These days people want to become salary clerks and slum dog millionaires. They don't want to learn philosophy.

 

[Timur]

Can cannabis alter mind like alcohol or heroin does ? If not, then it is not Haram. In fact cannabis helps in concentrations based on various research.

it clearly is haram..