Report proposes legalising billion-dollar cannabis industry to rescue ailing economy.

The town of Brital, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, is a jarring contrast of poverty and ostentatious wealth. Busted-up old vans drive on potholed roads next to gleaming Bentleys and Range Rovers with no number plates and blacked-out windows.

Unemployment is rife, and yet the landscape is dotted by large gated mansions. The town is home to some of Lebanon’s most powerful cannabis-growing families, who cultivate their crop openly in the fields nearby and possess a vast arsenal of weapons that has put them out of the reach of the law. 

Click here to read the complete article

Richard Hall ~ TheGuardian.com ~