Doing some digging around about Lebanese growing history... (asking myself, is it really a landrace?)
I would consider it to be so, at least in practical terms. Each year, they planted seeds that their plants had produced the year before, getting a new generation each time - and that time span equates to a lot of generations (in human terms, lol). One can assume that they favored seeds from plants that had characteristics the growers considered to be favorable; they would have selected for plants which fared well in the environment/climate/etc. that they were grown in (and probably increased visible trichome production, since they made hashish), with open pollination providing variety. Someone might have returned after having been away for a few decades, and observed that the cannabis was recognizably the same - only better in some way or other.
in 1945 the Lebanese authorities claim to have destroyed 22 million square meters of Cannabis being cultivated there.
That seems like a large number. Well, it
is, but... Lebanon is around 4,036 square
miles in area. That's 10,453,000,000 square meters (I think).
I suppose that it's possible, but I rather doubt that the line would have been completely eradicated. People would have kept seeds.
When does a strain stop being classified as "merely" an IBL and begin being referred to as a landrace?
No drug enforcement agencies in the middle east during WWII that I am aware of.
Lol.
A massive world war was raging then. Likely this information was just recorded in some military ledger someplace.
My guess is that they weren't thinking "cannabis," they were thinking "hemp" - a valid wartime target. Source for rope, clothing, other related equipment, nutrition, et cetera.
It USED to be cheap to live there as well. We paid $400 a month for a 2 bedroom house there. Try $4 GRAND a month rent there now.
I still see the odd two - or three - bedroom house renting at $400/month hereabouts. They are becoming rare, and are usually located "out in the country" (which I would generally consider to be a plus). Used to be cheaper... In the late '90s, I was renting an old three-bedroom farmhouse with ~50 acres, small barn, well, creek, meat was as close as aiming from the back porch (lol). I thought it was kind of expensive at $350/month but the fact that people tended to call before driving out was priceless
.
I wonder if I ordered some Oaxaca cheese, would they decorate it with <COUGH>hemp<COUGH> seeds from the Oaxacan Highlands... ?