Could the Army Solve Albania’s Cannabis Problem?

Could the army solve Albania’s rapidly growing cannabis cultivation problem? The country’s flamboyant and outspoken Justice Minister think so, further deepening the crack in Albania’s ruling SP/LSI coalition.

Asked during a press conference in Tirana on how Albania could tackle the massive cultivation of cannabis sativa on its territory, Ylli Manjani said that“we should respond with tougher measures and if necessary the army should also get out there. I can’t say if this is an emergency, but if needed the army should get involved. This situation can’t go on anymore”

Cannabis cultivation has more than quadrupled over this year with a network of drug barons cultivating and protecting parcels across the country, in what has become one of the biggest headaches for the Albanian authorites and neighboring Italy and Greece.

“We either get rid of this phenomenon now as it has just started, or we will never, or if we do, it will be too late. This is not an activity that brings prosperity, but it produces poverty and increases crime, criminilizing the whole society. It resembles the environment if the financial pyramid schemes of the 90’s. I would also support the idea of a Gendarmerie because all police forces in this country need to react proportionally‘ said Manjani in what is being interpreted as a ‘bomb’ across the Albanian public opinion.

Ylli Manjani who was recently proposed as the new justice minister by Ilir Meta, Edi Rama’s ally and leader of the smaller coalition partner Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), has dropped more fuel in what seems to be an ongoing saga of indirect clashes between Socialist Party ministers and LSI representatives.

Manjani’s comments are widely being interpreted as a direct attack on socialist interior minister Saimir Tahiri and prime minister Edi Rama who are being accused of directing and controlling a massive illegal cannabis trade in cooperation with local drug lords.

The Albanian opossition says the country’s Prime Minister Edi Rama and his gangs control the whole cycle of production and trafficking of Marijuana, while Rama dismisses allegations as utter nonsense, arguing that the police have seized and eliminated more than 2,4m plants this year alone in cooperation with Italian authorities.

In a blow to his flamboyant Justice Minister, Prime Minister Rama told journalist Eni Vasili last night that “putting the army on the ground offends my intelligence. Army on the ground? These are opinions. I speak of serious and concrete matters. We are in fact totally destroying its cultivation”.

The row comes one day after rebel MP and writer Ben Blushi who has just announced the creation of a new party ahead of next year’s elections, said in a TV debate that “cannabis cultivation is a government economic policy, enslaving Albanians while the money goes to the mafia”.

As Albania expects its next progress report by the European Commission on whether the EU will open accession talks for membership, the country’s public discourse has been set to fire by allegations that its government is at the center of a huge drug trade which makes use of its extensive Adriatic coastline to ship tons of marijuana to Italy’s shore.

Albania is required by the EU to seriously tackle its major corruption and organised crime problem if it wants to convince member states to open membership accession talks.

The European Commission publishes its progress report in November while member states have to vote during their December Council meeting on whether to open the green light for Albania.