Talk:Beqaa Valley
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Beqaa Valley treats the Bekaa valley of eastern Lebanon as a cannabis growing area: the valley between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges, with the mountain villages round it, in the Baalbek-Hermel and Beqaa governorates. It covers the conditions the sources describe, the making of hashish there, the extent of the crop, its eradication and the seed collections named for the valley. Lebanon's law on cannabis is treated at Lebanon.
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Discussion
Why the Beqaa Valley is a growing area
- Bouquet (Bulletin on Narcotics, 1950), summarising P. Lys (1933), states that cannabis was grown clandestinely in Lebanon, particularly round Zahle and Ras Baalbek. It describes four grades of Lebanese hashish.
- Afsahi and Darwich (2016) count the Beqaa among the traditional areas of cannabis cultivation and base their account on fieldwork there from 1995. Only the published abstract could be read; the article cites the paper for nothing beyond the abstract.
- L'Orient-Le Jour (14 April 2015) reports the head of the Internal Security Forces' narcotics bureau putting the yearly planting at about 35,000 dunums in the middle and northern Bekaa, in Baalbek and Hermel districts and parts of Bsharri and Danniyeh, with no destruction since 2012.
- L'Orient Today (29 September 2019) describes the harvest and the making of resin at Yammoune, with growers from Yammoune and Deir el-Ahmar.
- Al Ahmadieh (2022) interviewed 25 cannabis farmers in West Baalbek and the Hermel area.
- The Lebanese Army reported destroying about 60 dunums of cannabis at al-Kanisa (10 October 2026) and 14 tents used to grow cannabis at Dar al-Wasaa (13 October 2026), both in Baalbek District.
- The status is Active: the 2015, 2019 and 2022 sources and the 2026 statements all describe cultivation since 2000. Eradication in 2026 does not change the status, since no source says that growing has ended.
Extent and border
- No source draws a boundary round the growing area. The sources name the middle and northern Bekaa, the districts of Baalbek and Hermel, the towns of Zahle and Ras Baalbek and the villages of Yammoune, Deir el-Ahmar, al-Kanisa and Dar al-Wasaa.
- The map border is approximate. It is drawn on two present-day governorates, Baalbek-Hermel and Beqaa, which together take in the valley floor between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges and the slopes on either side. They cover about 4,200 km². The infobox area is rounded from the border.
- Every place named above lies inside the border. Baalbek-Hermel holds Baalbek, Hermel, Ras Baalbek, Yammoune, Deir el-Ahmar, al-Kanisa and Dar al-Wasaa; Beqaa Governorate holds Zahle.
- The border does not match the sources exactly. The southern districts of Beqaa Governorate, West Beqaa and Rashaya, are inside it, although no source reports cannabis there. The 2015 report also places some planting in parts of Bsharri and Danniyeh districts, on the far side of the Lebanon range in North Governorate; those are left outside, since the page treats the valley and its rim.
- A Lebanese Army statement of 9 October 2026 on a hashish seizure at the edge of Aarsal falls inside the border. It reports trafficking, not cultivation. It is not counted here as evidence of growing.
Sources
- Geography. The valley's length, rivers, arable share, climate and crops come from the Encyclopædia Britannica entry "Bekaa valley", read online.
- The 1930s. Bouquet's article is cited from the UNODC web edition. It credits the Lebanese places and grades to P. Lys, "Le chanvre indien au Liban", Annales de la Faculté de Médecine et Pharmacie de Beyrouth 6 (1933). It credits the finding on plains hemp to E. Safi, "Contribution à l'étude du chanvre indien du Liban", same Annales 4 (1935). Neither was read directly. The web edition prints no page numbers.
- The 2015 figures. The 35,000 dunums and 100 tonnes are the official figures given by the head of the narcotics bureau; the 10,000 hectares is the estimate of Hassan Makhlouf. The article attributes each to its speaker. The same report quotes a market of about 60 million dollars a year and a farm-gate total of at least 300 million, which are not used.
- Growers' accounts. The yield of seven to eight kilograms of resin to the dunum, the watering at Yammoune and the name zahret el-jabal come from growers quoted in the 2019 report. The article attributes them to the growers.
- Al Ahmadieh (2022). This is a master's thesis, not a peer-reviewed paper. It is cited only for the author's own interviews (pp. 20, 29, 32). Its literature review is not used: it restates other works, in places inaccurately. It takes its figures for acreage and income from press and secondary sources. One quoted phrase on page 33 matches the 2019 L'Orient Today report, which it does not name.
- Army statements. Both are on the army's website: the 10 October statement in Arabic and the 13 October statement in its English version. The 60 dunums is the army's estimate.
Other reports
- The L'Orient Today report of 2019 quotes a town-council chairman as saying that 60 per cent of "the Baalbeck-Hermel locality" had grown cannabis the previous year. What the figure is a share of is not clear from the report. It is not used.