Lebanon’s interior ministry has warned farmers in the northern Bekaa and Hermel area that they face stiff penalties if caught cultivating drugs, reported the Daily Star newspaper.
Leaflets were dropped over the area by an army helicopter stating that whoever grew cannabis would face life sentences with hard labor and fines of up to LL100 million ($66.000).
They also said that ‘mukhtars’ [village chiefs] who concealed any drug cultivation in their villages would face prison sentences and fines of up to LL2 million ($1.000), said the paper.
Drug cultivation was prohibited in 1992, but Bekaa farmers had threatened to resort to growing cannabis, claiming the government did not provide them with alternative crops – Albawaba.com
