Talk:Mokhotlong
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Mokhotlong treats Mokhotlong District, in the north-eastern mountains of Lesotho, as a cannabis growing area within the Maloti Mountains growing region. It covers what sources say of cultivation in the district. The administrative district would be Mokhotlong District; Lesotho's law and national figures are treated at Lesotho.
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Discussion
Why Mokhotlong is a growing area
- Laniel (1999; fieldwork summer 1997) describes the eastern sector of Mokhotlong District, "a zone stretching east and south from the Moremoholo River Valley, and including the district capital, Mokhotlong", as part of "a region known for its high-quality marijuana", and the western sector as yielding "marijuana of lesser quality". His 2001 article names Mokhotlong among the four districts where production was most prevalent and among the three eastern districts whose first-grade cannabis goes to Durban.
- Paterson (2009, p. 3) names "Lesotho's Mokhotlong district" as one of the three districts on which the southern African cannabis trade is focused. His note cites Laniel, who names four districts, not Mokhotlong alone.
- A herbarium sheet collected on 8 April 1999 in the Sanqebethu valley (Nüsser 4459, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, E00313428) records the plant in "village environs, cultivated fields".
- Chitofiri (2021) is a study of illicit cannabis cultivation by the highland communities of Mokhotlong District; only its abstract was read.
- The status is Active on Paterson (2009) and Chitofiri (2021). Neither reports a field or a date of growing in the district after 2000: Paterson's statement rests on Laniel's fieldwork of 1997, and Chitofiri's abstract does not give the period studied. No source says that growing in the district has ended.
Extent and border
- No source maps the fields. Laniel names the eastern sector and the Moremoholo valley; no map data was found for that sector, so the border is drawn on the whole district.
- The map border is approximate. It is Mokhotlong District as mapped in OpenStreetMap (about 4,200 km²), the unit the sources name. It takes in the western sector, which Laniel describes as growing cannabis of lesser quality.
- At Sani Pass the OpenStreetMap line of Thaba-Tseka District leaves a strip about 200 metres wide between Mokhotlong District and the national border; on the map it is given to Mokhotlong.
- The only accession from Lesotho on the wiki, Dieterlen 115, is from Leribe, outside the district. The Edinburgh sheet of 1999 is not yet an accession on the wiki.
Sources
- Laniel (1999); the 2001 article spells the district "Mokhotiong", a misprint.
- Paterson (2009), read at p. 3 and the passages on Lesotho.
- The Edinburgh sheet: the catalogue record gives no coordinates. GBIF's copy of the record carries an elevation of 2,600 metres, which the herbarium's own catalogue page does not show; the page gives no elevation.
- Chitofiri (2021): deposited by the University of the Free State as a video record, with an abstract; the video (about 124 MB) was not viewed and no written version was found. The record spells the district "Mokhtlong".
Sources not used
- A hikers' forum reprint of an ISS text saying that most smugglers arrested in the Drakensberg claim to come from Mokhotlong: the original was not found.
- A chapter of an ISS study of small arms (fieldwork 2003) saying that trade passes easily "between Mokhotlong and the Sani Pass": a statement about the border trade, not about growing, and its publication details could not be confirmed.
- No police, court or press report from 2000 to 2026 was found that names a growing place in the district.