A hemp plant | Photo: wikimedia.org

A government MP in Albania is preparing an amendment to the law code that will permit the cultivation of hemp, or so-called “industrial cannabis”, in the country.

Villages in the Malesia e Madhe in northern Albania grew hemp for years for use in the textile and oil industries but stopped doing so in 2000 when Albania classified hemp as a narcotic.

The authorities destroyed large plantations of hemp, originally planted with the help of a British development organisation, resulting in accusations and trials.

The police were obliged to compensate local farmers with $120,000 for damaging their crops although 57 men from the area are still in court facing trials for narcotics cultivation.

MP Paulin Sterkaj, who has taken the lead to change the law, told BIRN that banning hemp grown for industrial reasons has to stop.

“People in the area deserve a way of life and their soil can produce good hemp that they can sell and make a good profit from,” Sterkaj said.

He says growing hemp was a tradition in the area for centuries and, with state support, farmers can export it and created a sustainable livelihood once again.

Sterkaj believes that if the state oversees the process it will be easy to keep under control.

“Police fear the cultivation of hemp will be misused, but is time to understand that cultivating it will actually keep villagers away from illegal activities. Hemp will give them a good income alone,” he argued.

Sterkaj, who represents the area of Malesia e Madhe in parliament, says he has the approval of his chief party, Socialist leader and Prime Minister Edi Rama, to form a group of experts and work on the amendment.

If the law is changed, crops will be allowed to have a higher percentage of tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, before being deemed illegal.

Genti Guxho, who runs the textile engineering department at the University of Tirana, told BIRN that Albanian law sets the allowable limit of THC in plants too low.

Current legislation in Albania considers every crop that contains a level of THC higher than 0.1 per cent a narcotic. In countries like Canada, the level is 0.3 per cent.

“This unreasonable limit is a result of the state trying to find every way to eliminate marijuana cultivation in the past. Now we have to change it,” he said.

Hemp and cannabis plants are similar but the THC level in cannabis plants is much higher – and it is this that creates the so-called marijiana “high”.

During the Communist era, hemp was cultivated, professionally refined and exported from Albania. The first hemp factory was built in the country in 1946 and closed when the system collapsed in the 1990s.