[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's market for the illegal drug hashish is going through a shortage that is stoking a wide variety of theories, many of them colored by a sense of widespread distrust towards the government.Like, whoa. Bummer, dude!
The authorities have very little tolerance for hashish, and are happy to take the credit for curbing the trade in a series of busts since the beginning of the year that have netted at least six tones of the drug.
A report on Saturday in the official Al-Ahram newspaper, headlined "The Interior Ministry imposes its control over the drug market," announced the end of the hashish trade.
"A report by General Security confirmed... the complete destruction of the hashish trade in Egypt," the state-owned daily reported.
When contacted by AFP, the ministry presented a more modest account of its efforts.
"There is no such thing as a crime being finished," Deputy Interior Minister Hamdi Abdel Karim said. "We hope to keep restricting it," he said, adding this year's busts were "among the largest in years."
Hashish has, by all accounts, become more scarce and costly in Egypt where an estimated eight percent of the population consumes drugs, mostly marijuana, according to a 2007 official survey.