Red Lebanese

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Red Lebanese is the name for a certain type of hashish from Lebanon . This is not a variety designation in the narrower sense: Many relevant publications assume that the word creation "Red Lebanese" - regardless of the production method or processing - only describes the country of origin Lebanon and the reddish-brown color of the drug, analogous to names like " Black Afghan ", "Green Turk" or "Black Nepalese". Other interpretations make the red earth in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley responsible for the name "Red Lebanese". The Red Lebanese is more specific than hashish from the Lebanon Mountains which is usually packed in flat-pressed linen bags and is characterized by a high resin content.

history

Hemp cultivation in Lebanon is said to have a long tradition. The foundation for the reputation and popularity of the Lebanese Red was laid in the 1960s. Celebrities like Alain Delon and Romy Schneider are said to have consumed local cannabis products when they were in Lebanon. A decade later, the production of Lebanese hashish started on a large scale: During the years of the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990, exports reached a peak. During this time, more than half of the population lived directly or indirectly from the drug business: until the beginning of the 1990s, the red Lebanese was considered the export hit par excellence. In 1990, around 700 tons of Lebanese red are said to have been exported; in 1991, cannabis was grown on around 15,000 hectares in Lebanon.

In 1993, however, the production and export of the Red Lebanese fell abruptly, because troops from Syria , which then controlled Lebanon militarily, systematically destroyed almost all cultivation areas - the Syrians thereby complied with a request from the USA . Hundreds of farmers have lost their professional existence as a result. Only in the far north of the country and in remote areas of the high Lebanon Mountains was the red Lebanese still grown. During a visit to Lebanon in June 1994, a specially traveled UN delegation stated: "There is no longer any drug cultivation in the Bekaa plain."

It was only in 2001 that Lebanese farmers began to increasingly produce and export red Lebanese. In 2007 there is said to have been a bumper harvest.

In the Bekaa plain in western Lebanon, the traditional cultivation area of ​​the Red Lebanese, there is also said to have been an uprising by farmers against the police in 2007 - police tried to burn down cultivated hemp fields, which the farmers are said to have prevented with armed force . The Hezbollah , the wide this time parts of the Bekaa Valley, controlled the production of hashish looked not like to tolerate the business sector but. According to official estimates, between 7,000 and 7,500 hectares of land were planted with hemp in Lebanon as early as 2008.

Trivia

  • The red Lebanese was more present in the media in 1977 when drug investigators confiscated 1,800 kilograms of it in Christina von Opel's villa in Saint-Tropez .
  • A writer named Leo P. Ard published a detective novel in 1984 called "Red Lebanese".
  • The term Red Lebanese can be found in numerous popular cultural works, such as On the Road by Jack Kerouac , Die Glückn by Peter Paul Zahl , or in the text Mei Vadda hot an Marihuana-Bam by Hans Söllner .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See for example: Breitmaier, Eberhard (2002): Alkaloids: Narcotics, Hallucinogens and other active ingredients , page 91; Sauer, Oliver / Weilemann, Sacha (2001): Drugs: Properties, Effects Intoxications , page 78; Nordegren, Thomas (2002): The AZ Encyclopedia of Alcohol and Drug Abuse , p. 563; or Paul, Andreas (2005): Drug users in juvenile criminal proceedings , page 27
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g U. Putz: Hashish from the Middle East - In the valley of the Red Lebanese. Der Spiegel , October 5, 2007.
  3. ↑ Bastigkeit, Mathias (2003): drugs: a scientific manual , page 145
  4. ↑ a b c d Jan Rübel: "State aid for farmers stay out" , in: Die Welt , August 9, 2001.
  5. ^ "From the drug business to the economic crisis" , in: Der Standard , June 26, 1993, page 8.
  6. ↑ "Red Lebanese, where are you" ?, In: the daily newspaper , September 19, 1997.
  7. ^ "Aktion Scharf im Lebanon" , in: Salzburger Nachrichten , August 22, 2009, page 4
  8. ↑ a b "The times are right for hashish" , in: Die Welt , February 13, 2008, page 6.
  9. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Sunday , November 5, 2006, page 22.

literature