Egypt faces 'the hash crisis'

Erik Davis alerts us to this diabolical conspiracy happening on the streets of Egypt:

The biggest news on people’s minds in Egypt is not last week’s pro-democracy demonstrations in front of parliament during which some 90 people were arrested. It’s not Mohamed ElBaradei’s shakeup of the political scene. It’s not the president’s health, which remains ambiguous. It’s not even spiraling meat prices.

The biggest topic of conversation here in Egypt is the disappearance of hashish from the local market, a shortage that has become known, at least in some quarters, as “the hash crisis.”....

Official estimates put the number of hash smokers in Egypt at seven million, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the real number was much higher. It’s not uncommon to see the butcher in a local market smoking a fat joint while he takes a tea break. Cabbies will occasionally drive around Cairo’s congested streets with a little spliff held under the steering wheel. The smell of hash often drifts from the seats of the doormen who sit in front of Cairo apartment buildings....

But over the past month or so, hashish has all but disappeared from this North African country. Nobody knows why.