Albanian cannabis growers humbled by crackdown

[Frazz]

LAZARAT, Albania (Reuters) - Cannabis plants lay stacked up like Christmas trees around a police station near this remote Albanian village, a humbling sight for growers who two years ago took pot-shots at an Italian police helicopter.

 

"Why didn't you come much earlier?" an old woman wailed at the police, berating them for not acting before work had gone into growing the crop. "Four of our donkeys died fetching water for these plants. And now you come and the harvest's all gone."

 

Albania has been clamping down on cannabis cultivation since Prime Minister Sali Berisha pledged early this year to "wipe it off the map".

 

But in the southern village of Lazarat, where plants have been uprooted by police, residents feel they are being singled out and harshly showcased.

 

"We shall bear down on this village until the end of September. I can't say we shall uproot every stalk, but 90 percent will go," said regional Police Chief Dashnor Kaja following the third raid in the district in 10 days.

 

Plenty of sun, water, poverty, anarchy and hard-to-reach hills turned post-communist Albania into one of the biggest exporters of cannabis in Europe.

 

The 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report said good quality Albanian hashish was prized by drugs users and sometimes even exchanged for heroin.

 

Lazarat has been at the heart of this trade, and for many years was a no-go zone for Albanian police.

 

In 2004, villagers shot at an Italian drug-spotting helicopter as it tried to photograph marijuana fields. Berisha pointedly stayed away during his election campaign last year.

 

"There was far more cannabis than vines," said a monitor sent to Lazarat for last year's general election, which was won by Berisha's Democrats. "In some places I saw no walls separating property, just cannabis fences."

 

A NEW AGENDA

 

Despite Berisha's pledge, the people of Lazarat had thought this year would be business as usual; they believed the absence of police at the start of the summer meant the authorities would again turn a blind eye to their crops.

 

But although Berisha's Democrats had in the past been accused of protecting Lazarat, partly to annoy Socialist rivals, they now see cracking down on cannabis here as a means to win international respectability.

 

In June, Interior Minister Sokol Olldashi flew into Lazarat to warn cannabis growing would not be tolerated. On the same day, drivers for parliament and the Constitutional Court were arrested in the area with 100 kg of the weed.

 

"It is absolutely intolerable for police inspectors to allow narcotic drugs be cultivated in their territory as if they were onions," Olldashi said.

 

And Lazarat's almost legendary defiance seems to be fading.

 

Police spokesman Gentian Mullai said "there was really no shooting" when police ripped up 1,600 plants at the end of August. Villagers did not block the highway and there was no need for sharpshooters to watch the hills.

 

But a week later, shots were fired at police as they made a fresh raid which netted compressed marijuana ready for shipment, plus three automatic rifles and 800 rounds of ammunition. A police inspector was suspended for tipping off the growers.

 

"IT'S NOT JUST US"

 

Lazarat village leader Dashnor Aliko said there might be a few people growing cannabis, but not the whole village.

 

"The state should help employ people because they will try anything to feed their hungry children," he told Reuters. He said he had seen television pictures of "whole plantations" elsewhere in Albania that dwarfed Lazarat's modest fields.

 

Former police chief Xhavit Shala says politics and drugs are sometimes mixed in what is known locally as "cannabis politics," whereby politicians have sometimes feigned ignorance of drug growing because that might have cost them votes.

 

Shala said that in the district of Fier, for example, a high quality cannabis was grown by the village chief, the teacher and even a police inspector.

 

Albania began its latest anti-drug campaign by banning speedboats used to ferry drugs across the Adriatic to Italy. In a recent chase, one boat dumped 300 kg at sea but another ran the blockade with 530 kg before being stopped in Italy.

 

More than 6 tonnes of pressed cannabis has been seized so far from traffickers, some of it dumped off speedboats.

 

But investigative reporter Artan Hoxha, who uncovered plantations in Vlore helping to trigger a police crackdown there, said stopping speedboats was not the answer.

 

"This is a fight you win on the ground," he said.

 

Author: Benet Koleka

Date:Tue 12 Sep 2006

Source:News.Scotsman.com

Copyright:2006 Scotsman.com

[mull]

"This is a fight you win on the ground," he said.

 

 

Making the people he used to protect and serve, poorer... nice fight he's winning!

[Stoney]

funny how the goverment is picking and choosing who there will be leanient on when it comes to growing MJ some towns aint allowed where as some are

 

this is just stupid and just goes to show how paid of some of these goverments can be

 

maybe they should be focusing on the poverty at the same time as cutting down plants as i can see this small village losing out bigtime

 

cheerz

[Budman2012]

Hey Thx Frazzle , Thats an interesting article.

I know bugger all about Albania.

Well , Now I know a little.

 

"In some places I saw no walls separating property, just cannabis fences."

 

 

I cant wait till we can have Cannabis fences too ...

 

 

Cool.

 

Budman ... Out. (My Donkey died 3 times fetching water for my fence)

 

Heheheheh

[couchman]

It goes to show what a community is capable of in times of extreme hardship. And kudos to them for becoming known as exporters of the finest cannabis in the region, i find that totally amazing. I wonder how long it took them to build this reputation?

 

Your heart just has to go out to all of those ex-soviet countries that were left with nothing with the demise of the soviet union. 15+ years later and some of those countries situation is not much better, in fact for some its much worse.

 

but fuck it would be nice waking up in a suburb with nothing but MJ in flower all around you. I cant even visualise such a far fetched fantasy, and here it exists!.

[everest]

but fuck it would be nice waking up in a suburb with nothing but MJ in flower all around you. I cant even visualise such a far fetched fantasy, and here it exists!.

 

nepal's good at the right time of year

 

nice article ... cheers fraz