Controlled cannabis production could earn Turkey $100B

By Musab Turan</p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkey could earn $100 billion from controlled cannabis production through 2030, said the head of the Cannabis Institute of the Center for Eurasian Strategic Studies (ASAM) on Thursday.</p> <p>The country could use the cannabis plant to produce textile materials, paper, biodiesel, electricity (with biomass), biodegradable polymers, and all types of plastics, Erdem Ulas told Anadolu Agency.</p> <p>He said cannabis is also used in the medical industry — such as cancer treatment — and the Turkish economy could benefit from this.</p> <p>&quot;Extrapolating from the cannabis leaf's price of €15 million [$17 million] per ton, we could earn €1.5 billion [$1.7 billion] by exporting 100 tons of [cannabis] oil,&quot; he said.</p> <p>Over the last 8,000 years of human history, cannabis has had a variety of uses, he underlined.</p> <p>The ancient Sumerians called the plant &quot;the miracle from the presence of the God,&quot; he said.</p> <p>Mentioning rising paper prices in Turkey, Ulas stressed that the country could produce paper from cannabis rather than trees.</p> <p>&quot;Cannabis has 85 types of cellulose and it can be recycled eight times,&quot; he said.</p> <p>He also said a number of countries worldwide already produce cannabis, including France, the Netherlands, Canada, and the U.S.</p> <p>&quot;The U.S. expects $71 billion in income from cannabis by 2025,&quot; he added.</p> <p>President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently announced that 19 Turkish cities were authorized for cannabis seeding.</p> <p>Since the 1990s, cannabis seeding has been limited in order not to allow the production of marijuana.</p> <p>Cannabis is used in several industrial fields such as automotives, wood, construction, textiles, cosmetics, biodiesel, food, and paper.</p> <p> </p> <p>* Gokhan Ergocun contributed to this story from Istanbul