ISIS burns Syrian cannabis fields | World War 4 Report

17.9.14

ISIS burns Syrian cannabis fields | World War 4 Report: The Syria Deeply blog, which supports the opposition to both ISIS and Syria's dictator Bashar Assad, notes that a cannabis economy has taken hold in the country's rebel-held north over the past three years of war. The crop has become a key source of financing for a proliferation of armed groups, and nearly all other economic activity has been disrupted by war. The blog reports from the Jabal al-Zawiya in Idlib governorate, a mountain range along the Turkish border. Once famous for growing olives, it is now growing almost exclusively cannabis. "We don't have jobs anymore," said Ahmad, a 31-year-old cannabis farmer from the town of Maarret al-Numan. "We have no land, no trade, nothing. If it wasn't for smuggling, we'd starve to death."