The high life
Cambodia has a complicated relationship with cannabis
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Cambodia
has a complicated relationship with cannabis – which is believed to have been cultivated and used for medicinal, culinary and recreational purposes here for hundreds of years. On paper, it’s still illegal – in accordance with the Single Convention on Narcotics treaty passed in 1961 – and in recent weeks, police have busted at least four large-scale marijuana growing operations, including almost 8,000 plants discovered amid a sesame crop in Pursat. Meas Vyrith, the secretary-general of Cambodia’s National Authority for Combating Drugs, said the authorities made exceptions to the law for traditional, small-scale growers in the Kingdom. “If they grow [it] because their families and ancestors have used it, it is fine, but if they use more than that, we prevent them from growing it.”
