Cannabis is always a very controversial topic. Some of us have tried it, most of us haven’t. Some of us regard it as innocent, many of us regard it as a dangerous drug. In Bulgaria, marijuana is illegal and I’ve been told the justice system here doesn’t make a distinction between hard and soft drugs, so marijuana is essentially treated as a hard drug. Even though this is the case, a lot more young people I know here regularly smoke weed or have tried it than the young people I know in Holland.
While doing research for a presentation on The Netherlands – Drugs, Prostitution and Same-Sex Marriage, I already discovered that in the United States about 35% of all people have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives, whereas in the Netherlands it was around 19%. Makes one think about whether the policies of banning cannabis are effective… Whether you smoke it or not.
In some areas of Bulgaria, particularly the south-west near the Greek and Macedonian borders I’ve been told, there are entire villages of farmers that rely on cannabis harvests for their daily bread. Supposedly the entrance road to the village is protected by mafia who most likely have deals with the police to keep them away – although in recent years there have been a few busts in these villages, such as in Gabrene, where 1600kg of cannabis was found. One look at the news articles shows that it’s just simple villagers between 50 and 70 years old who are doing this, even a 63 year old priest was caught.
Bulgaria is the poorest nation in the EU and these people are doing what they have to do to survive. The people allegedly pretend to be growing crops and herbs and if you tell them it’s weed they will go “Oh really? What’s that?” It’s right in the center of their normal crops, like corn.
Another problem is that organised crime buys the cannabis from the farmers for low prices and sells it in the cities for much higher prices, so every time someone consumes cannabis (which is more innocent than alcohol), they make the mafia money and help them strengthen their grip on Bulgarian society.
Photo by elrentaplats, shared under a Creative Common license.
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
Comments
3 responses to “The Cannabis Villages of Bulgaria”
Well written Bas, the whole issue of cannabis lies with the USA. If they legaise it then so will the rest will probably follow. But they won’t, as too mnay livelihoods are at risk – underground businesses have too much to lose form this and won’t allow it to happen. They are the bosses anyway!
Hope your enjoying Sofia and your new digs.
Hey there Bas! Great post. I always learn so much when I visit your blog. Thanks for always shining a light on things like this.
Have a great weekend 🙂
As I start telling you things about this article on facebook for me is very interesting that you have these information about this very critical subject, that is not mentioned a lot in the streets of Bulgaria. As lot of people from south west Bulgaria telling, there are one of the biggest plantation in the Balkans. They produce there like a fabric for the mafia 3 very important sorts of weed. Three types for three markets (places) for selling. High quality pot is going directly on the Europe bazaar, I mean in the country from EU, where the prize is bigger, the second sort go in the bordering on countries like Greece, Macedonia… That what is left is for the home market. So we speak about very big structures of illegal grid all around. And they are not selling only marijuana, and that’s from my perspective the only answer why is still the weed illegal and threat as easy drug. Cause the same mafia work with weed and also with strong opiates like heroin, ecstasy… and even keep their drugs in that area that you mentioned, cause those village people have no connections to stand against all these conspiracy. They don’t have the power to change the things.
…the same situation is with the prostitution (I more use human trafficking – other subject ), cause the people who give those pleasure usually don’t want to work that job, but there is no way for going back. And of course the place where mafia do that business is as we say in my country behind Gods back.
no one know, no one hear, no one can say anything!
…only small people, small as dust!
see y