As Morocco moves forward with the legal regulation of cannabis under Law 13-21, the journey from cultivation to commercialization remains complex. Despite progress in licensing and cooperative support, Moroccan cannabis products continue to face significant bureaucratic delays before reaching the market. These obstacles not only discourage legitimate operators but also threaten the viability of the legal supply chain.
The Bottlenecks Holding Back Legal Producers
Licensed cooperatives and processors often encounter administrative challenges at multiple stages:
- Lengthy pre-marketing approvals for packaging, labeling, and testing
- Delays in ANRAC coordination with other agencies responsible for export, health, or customs
- Lack of clear procedures for batch certification and product classification
- Limited digital infrastructure to manage workflows or provide status updates
This administrative slowdown can stall entire harvests, leaving legally grown cannabis in storage — and pushing some actors to consider returning to illicit channels for faster liquidity.
Why Market Access Matters
For the legal framework to succeed, licensed cannabis must move efficiently through the supply chain. Delays in approvals, product evaluation, or transportation hurt:
- Farmers, who rely on timely payment for their crops
- Processors, who must manage storage, compliance, and quality timelines
- Exporters and buyers, who need assurance of reliability
- Government agencies, which lose public trust and tax revenue when the legal system underperforms
Efficient market access is not just a business need — it’s a pillar of legal cannabis reform and sustainable rural development.
What Needs to Change
To resolve this gap between law and execution, Morocco must streamline cannabis market entry with:
- Clear administrative guidelines for each post-harvest stage, including timelines and agency responsibilities
- One-stop coordination centers (physical or digital) for document processing, lab approvals, and export clearance
- Batch tracking and certification systems, accessible to cooperatives and processors
- Legal oversight to ensure accountability, transparency, and fair treatment of licensed actors
At the Cannabis Legal Collective, we are working with partners to promote such reforms, offer legal support to stakeholders facing administrative delays, and draft model frameworks that can guide future updates to Morocco’s cannabis law.
A Legal Industry Must Be a Functional One
Morocco has taken bold steps toward creating a regulated cannabis sector. But legal cultivation means little without functional market access. By addressing bureaucratic inefficiencies head-on, the country can empower its farmers, protect its processors, and strengthen its international reputation as a credible cannabis producer.
Let’s break the barriers — and deliver on the full promise of legal cannabis.
