Two former weed farmers tell us why Aceh's marijuana industry isn't going anywhere
Marijuana is still big business in Indonesia's Aceh province, despite a decades-long drug war
Tuesday, February 21, 2019
Marijuana has a long history in Aceh, so much so that it's still totally common for locals to offer some to visitors. But the province's associations with weed have also been something of an open secret in Indonesia, home to some of the harshest anti-drug laws on Earth. The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) now claims to have decreased the number of marijuana plantations in Aceh significantly. But it seems like the claim is not entirely accurate, since BNN agents continue to find new plantations in Aceh, including the country's biggest yet last October. For the past three years, the BNN has continued to implement a program called the Grand Design Alternative Development (GDAD) that aims to persuade farmers in Aceh to stop planting weed and switch to corn, and other and supposedly more superior commodities
