Bohala is one of the fifty or so villages in the region of the Valley of the Rif. Since a very long time ago kifi was cultivated in some of the highest villages because this is one of the few plants which adapts well to the harsh conditions of the earth, made up of mainly pebbles, with mountain temperatures. The manufacturing of hashish arrived from Turkey only half a century ago and its success has led to an explosion of marihuana, plantations of which reach the frontiers of Algiers and Tangier, but up until merely ten years ago it was only grown in Baberred and Ketama, an area fifty kilometres in length. Today the ocean of marihuana measures 100 km in length. It is possible to travel by bicycle along paths from the outskirts of Chefchaouen to Ketama knowing that all that surrounds you is marihuana. Villages like Bohala are very poor and have seen in the kifi plant their only way to put food on their table, taking on the risk that that implies and submitting to the police black mail who patrol the motorway like the rest of the inhabitants of the Rif. All the police do is to make sure that the plantations are not obviously visible from the only road, which goes through the Valley of Rif: if anybody is too blatant he is immediately dispossessed and arrested. They accept the bribes to turn a blind eye and take the opportunity to extort whoever they catch making a deal to earn a little bit extra. They don't tend to go into the villages where they are not welcome in any case.
