Pyramid Express: Egypt among world's top hashish consumers

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Pyramid Express: Egypt among world's top hashish consumers

Egypt ranks five places behind the Netherlands in a report published by the UN on world cannabis consumption.

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25 Apr, 2017

The sale and consumption of cannabis is illegal in Egypt [AFP]

Egypt has ranked 25th on a list of global cannabis consumption published in a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The report, which lists 25 countries in order of highest to lowest levels of consumption, was published on April 20 - a day that celebrated by cannabis legalisation activists worldwide.

Despite its reputation for cannabis cafes and its liberal approach towards drugs, the Netherlands ranked 20 on the list, with Iceland taking the top spot.

In Egypt, lobbyists have attempted in the past to legalise the sale of consumption of hash, with the Cairo and Giza Tobacco Merchants Association having submitted a proposal to this effect to Egypt's cabinet in 2015.

The association argued that such a step would increase revenues from taxes on the drug, which would allow the state to reduce its budget deficit.

Hash remains illegal in Egypt and has been since the country signed the League of Nations’ Geneva International Convention on Narcotic Control in 1925.