Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in 1985
The entire “Bud’s In Bekaa” series was inspired, at least in part, by a 2007 article in the Christian Science Monitor which is also the first posting in this series of journal entries. Going back 20+ years in time, here’s a CS Monitor story from the mid 1980’s when hashish production in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley was at a historical high point.
Hashish — the `petroleum’ of Lebanon’s Bekaa valley
From the October 08, 1985 edition Christian Science Monitor
By ReuterDoures, Lebanon— It won’t be a vintage year for Bekaa Valley hashish, but growers say that buyers of “Lebanese red” will still get good value. “There hasn’t been enough rain this year so it won’t be as good as last year,” said Abu Abbas as he inspected his field of cannabis, the plant from which hashish is made. “But it’s still okay — our hashish is never bad.”
Although illegal in Lebanon — and religously forbidden to the Shiite Muslims who grow the plant — hashish is the country’s chief export crop. One dealer said he expected 175 metric tons of this year’s crop to go abroad.
Bekaa residents say the only laws in force are supply and demand. They say hashish, known as the “petroleum of the Bekaa” because of its economic importance, engages some 40 percent of the population in the northern part of the valley.
“We feel hashish is bad, but the Lebanese crisis has forced everyone to seek a living as best he can,” said Abu Ali of Al-Ain village north of Baalbek. “The Bekaa would be poor without hashish.”
Abu Ali said most hashish is routed through Deir al-Ahmar. It changes hands several times before reaching militia-run ports in Tripoli, Jounieh, and Beirut.
Egyptian traders take about 40 per cent of the Bekaa’s hashish, he said. The rest ends up in America, Europe and other Middle Eastern countries.
Cannabis has been grown in Lebanon for centuries, but as an export crop it only took off in the 1960s.
Of course the 1960’s were when Cannabis connoisseurs from all around the globe discovered traditional hashmaking and cannabis producing regions of the world.
Table of contents for Hashish of Lebanon
- More Buds Again in Bekaa
- Revisiting Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley
- Future’s Bright for Buds in Bekaa ‘08
- Return to Bekaa
- Economics 101 & Buds of Bekaa
- Boycotting the Buds of Bekaa - The Politics of Lebanese Hashish
- Boycotting Bekaa’s Bud - Hashish Politics (part 2)
- Lebanese Hash in Recent History - 2001 (pt. 1)
- Make Hash Not War! - Lebanese Hash 2001 (pt. 2)
- ”I Once Owned a Car, But Now, Thanks be to God, I have a Cow” - Geopolitical Economics & Bekaa’s Buds
- Land of Milk And Honey - Breadbasket of the Empire
- Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in 1985
- Looking for Lebanese Red
- Lebanon And Bekaa in Biblical History
- Return of the Repressed - More Bekaa Valley Background
- Bekaa Buds - a Lebanese View
- Lebanese Hashish Via The Financial Times
- Bekaa And the Israeli-Hezbollah Fight
- Lawless Grow Rich Compliments of Plant Prohibition
- The Outlaw Bud’s of Bekaa - 2001
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