(MENAFN- Morocco World News) Ilyass El Omari, President of the Regional Council of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, proposed to allow cannabis to be sold legally in cafes.

The Secretary General of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), one of Morocco''s opposition parties, said that ” the majority of the rural population, especially the area of Chefchaouen, is living directly or indirectly from cannabis,'' stressing that he would not let all these people ''live in inequality.''

In an interview with the magazine Telquel, El Omari said that he would like to make it possible for the youth of the region ''to be able to open cafes where they can legally sell cannabis to consumers in reasonable and specific amounts on a weekly basis.''

Last March, El Omari organized the first international conference on drugs and cannabis in Tangier, under the theme ''All for Alternatives Based on Sustainable Development, Health and Human Rights.'' During the event, here elected officials, experts and scholars presented their views on the issue of cannabis plantations and alternatives available to local cultivators.

While many have previously called for the decriminalization of cannabis for medical and pharmaceutical uses, El Omari''s demands for allowing the commercialization of cannabis to individual consumers makes another shift in the issue of cannabis in Morocco.

In 2014, the PAM, along with other political parties like Istiqlal Party, the oldest conservative party of the kingdom, proposed a draft law to decriminalize and regulate the cultivation of cannabis for medical and pharmaceutical uses.

The draft law was fiercely opposed by the Party of Justice and Development, which leads the coalition the government.