News:1998-11-01/Report/cannabis-cambodia-smokers-paradise-detailed-account-of-open-cannabis-trade-cultivation-and-culture

1 November 1998

Report

Cambodia·

"Cannabis Cambodia: Smoker's Paradise" — detailed account of open cannabis trade, cultivation, and culture

Journalist Amit Gilboa documented Cambodia's cannabis landscape in comprehensive detail. Cannabis was openly sold at Phnom Penh markets by traditional medicine vendors — $2 for 100g, $20/kg — called "gaan-chah." Export-quality cannabis was available in Sihanoukville (Kompong Som) and Koh Kong. A Khmer journalist explained that "marijuana grows very easily on the fields by the river. The farmers can just scatter the seeds and let it grow" and that some people "have the custom of eating it in chicken soup in the morning." Cannabis was considered an "old man's habit" by young Khmers. The December 1996 anti-marijuana law was described as driven by US pressure, with sources confirming heavy American prohibitionist influence. A 1997 anti-drug workshop in Japan named Cambodia as the second biggest source (behind Colombia) for seized marijuana in Europe. The article documented high-level government protection of trafficking operations, including the 6-tonne Mong Ret Thy seizure (April 1997) and the military assault on anti-drug chief Heng Peo (March 1998).

Source: https://www.cannabisculture.com/content/1998/11/01/1403/

1998-11-01 Report "Cannabis Cambodia: Smoker's Paradise" — detailed account of open cannabis trade, cultivation, and culture Journalist Amit Gilboa documented Cambodia's cannabis landscape in comprehensive detail. Cannabis was openly sold at Phnom Penh markets by traditional medicine vendors — $2 for 100g, $20/kg — called "gaan-chah." Export-quality cannabis was available in Sihanoukville (Kompong Som) and Koh Kong. A Khmer journalist explained that "marijuana grows very easily on the fields by the river. The farmers can just scatter the seeds and let it grow" and that some people "have the custom of eating it in chicken soup in the morning." Cannabis was considered an "old man's habit" by young Khmers. The December 1996 anti-marijuana law was described as driven by US pressure, with sources confirming heavy American prohibitionist influence. A 1997 anti-drug workshop in Japan named Cambodia as the second biggest source (behind Colombia) for seized marijuana in Europe. The article documented high-level government protection of trafficking operations, including the 6-tonne Mong Ret Thy seizure (April 1997) and the military assault on anti-drug chief Heng Peo (March 1998). https://www.cannabisculture.com/content/1998/11/01/1403/