Following a law that was passed last year, a state agency in Morocco has issued ten permits for the use of cannabis in industry and medicine, reports Reuters.

The agency said that farmers, organised into cooperatives in the northern mountain areas of Al Houceima, Taounat and Chefchaouen, would gradually be able to grow cannabis to meet the needs of the legal market, reports Reuters.
The permits will also be used for export although they will not allow the recreational use of cannabis. Cannabis is already widely cultivated in Morocco illegally and the new law intends to protect farmers’ income and stop drug traffickers who have been in charge of the country’s cannabis trade and illegal exports up until now.