Cannabis valley in Kazakhstan to be destroyed with herbicides

The “legendary” Chui Valley may be destroyed with herbicides, Tengrinews reports.

Legendary - because hardly anyone in Kazakhstan has not heard about it. Legendary in quotes – because the Valley is known primarily for cannabis that grow there.

Located in Kazakhstan’s Zhambyl Oblast and Kyrgyzstan’s Chui Province, about 140,000 hectares of the total area of the valley see intensive growth of cannabis.

It is not known precisely when cannabis started growing in the valley. Some claim that the seeds were brought here in the 17th century by Turkestan Governor-General Kolpakovsky with the good intentions to prevent sand encroachment, Lenta.ru writes.

Others believe cannabis has grown here since ancient times and the people found it useful in everyday life because of high durability of the material.

In any case, now the valley is a heaven for drug dealers. Up to 5 tons of marijuana a year can be produced from the cannabis growing here.

In January this year head of the Interior Ministry of Kazakhstan Kalmukhanbet Kasymov said that there was a need to address the problem.

He told the Mazhilis, Lower Chamber of the Parliament, that they were searching for a possibility to implement the project on localization and liquidation of wild hemp under the current target program of the Ministry of Agriculture. He added that previous attempts of the Ministry to organize industrial processing of hemp in Chui Valley did not bear fruit.

On her part, deputy Nazarbayeva suggested using hemp in Chui Valley for medical purposes. She noted that 25 thousand kinds of products are produced from industrial and medical cannabis worldwide. Cannabis is also used to treat patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, she said.

"How many years have our law enforcement agencies been fighting against cannabis growing in the Chui Valley, how much budget money has been spent on these efforts, is it at all effective, shall we ask? Today, maybe it is time to actually use this cannabis growing in the wild for good purposes, for medical purposes, with a view to develop the national economy?" she said.

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