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url: hMPp://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/cannabis-country/
BUENOS AIRES For the people of Buenos Aires, Uruguay, the small country just across the Río de la Plata estuary, can seem like paradise. Its not just about the beaches; the place has also become a darling of foreign investors even while passing the most progressive social policies in Latin America.
Now Uruguay seems poised to enact a law that would make it the first country in the world to fully regulate the production, sale and distribution of marijuana.
The initiative is the brainchild of President José Mujica Cordano, a former guerilla fighter who is often called the worlds poorest president because he hands over 90 percent of his salary to charity. He introduced the measure more than a year ago, presenting it as a sensible way to combat drug trafficking. Uruguayans currently are allowed to smoke marijuana but not to grow or sell it, which means consumers buy on the black market, usually low-quality weed that comes from Paraguay through Argentina and Brazil. Mujica has called this $30 million-a-year operation a mafia monopoly because it is run by criminal gangs that use violence to win market shares.
His proposed law would allow every household to cultivate six plants and authorized cannabis cooperatives 99 plants all strictly for personal use. There would be only one legal form of sale: The government would buy marijuana produced by specially licensed private companies and then resell it through pharmacies to registered buyers. Any Uruguayan resident over 18 could register and buy up to 40 grams a month.
The Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis would be charged with implementing all details of the law, including pricing. Julio Calzada, head of the governments National Drugs Committee, recently said that the marijuana would have to sell in the range of what the black market charges because otherwise you cant compete.
Uruguays lower house voted 50 to 46 to approve the measure last month. The Senate, where Mujicas party, Frente Amplio (Broad Front), holds a comfortable majority, is expected to follow suit before the end of the year.
There is some resistance, however, among the political opposition and the public. Despite months of open debates and several amendments to the bill, Uruguayans remain skeptical. According to a poll last month, 63 percent of oppose legalization (down only three percentage points since last year) and 26 percent are for it (just two percentage points more than last year).
People seem worried that legalization will increase the consumption of marijuana, lead to higher drug use in general and turn Uruguay into a destination for drug tourism. The share of Uruguayans who are regular weed smokers has grown from 0.4 percent of the population in 2001 to 4.9 percent in 2011. And violence has been increasing in the peaceful country, a trend often blamed on pasta base, a crack-like drug that is a scourge in much of South America.
Partly to address these concerns, Mujica has been arguing that his law is merely an experiment and that if it doesnt have the planned effects the government would backtrack. We do not have to be fanatics, he said.
If he manages to reassure both the political opposition and the people, Uruguay will outpace the rest of Latin America, and even the Organization of American States, which has been talking a lot and doing little about legalizing drug use. It looks like once again this tiny country the first in the region to legalize divorceand womens suffrage is about to teach its neighbors a big lesson.
Cannabis Country
BUENOS AIRES For the people of Buenos Aires, Uruguay, the small country just across the Río de la Plata estuary, can seem like paradise. Its not just about the beaches; the place has also become a darling of foreign investors even while passing the most progressive social policies in Latin America.
Now Uruguay seems poised to enact a law that would make it the first country in the world to fully regulate the production, sale and distribution of marijuana.
The initiative is the brainchild of President José Mujica Cordano, a former guerilla fighter who is often called the worlds poorest president because he hands over 90 percent of his salary to charity. He introduced the measure more than a year ago, presenting it as a sensible way to combat drug trafficking. Uruguayans currently are allowed to smoke marijuana but not to grow or sell it, which means consumers buy on the black market, usually low-quality weed that comes from Paraguay through Argentina and Brazil. Mujica has called this $30 million-a-year operation a mafia monopoly because it is run by criminal gangs that use violence to win market shares.
His proposed law would allow every household to cultivate six plants and authorized cannabis cooperatives 99 plants all strictly for personal use. There would be only one legal form of sale: The government would buy marijuana produced by specially licensed private companies and then resell it through pharmacies to registered buyers. Any Uruguayan resident over 18 could register and buy up to 40 grams a month.
The Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis would be charged with implementing all details of the law, including pricing. Julio Calzada, head of the governments National Drugs Committee, recently said that the marijuana would have to sell in the range of what the black market charges because otherwise you cant compete.
Uruguays lower house voted 50 to 46 to approve the measure last month. The Senate, where Mujicas party, Frente Amplio (Broad Front), holds a comfortable majority, is expected to follow suit before the end of the year.
There is some resistance, however, among the political opposition and the public. Despite months of open debates and several amendments to the bill, Uruguayans remain skeptical. According to a poll last month, 63 percent of oppose legalization (down only three percentage points since last year) and 26 percent are for it (just two percentage points more than last year).
People seem worried that legalization will increase the consumption of marijuana, lead to higher drug use in general and turn Uruguay into a destination for drug tourism. The share of Uruguayans who are regular weed smokers has grown from 0.4 percent of the population in 2001 to 4.9 percent in 2011. And violence has been increasing in the peaceful country, a trend often blamed on pasta base, a crack-like drug that is a scourge in much of South America.
Partly to address these concerns, Mujica has been arguing that his law is merely an experiment and that if it doesnt have the planned effects the government would backtrack. We do not have to be fanatics, he said.
If he manages to reassure both the political opposition and the people, Uruguay will outpace the rest of Latin America, and even the Organization of American States, which has been talking a lot and doing little about legalizing drug use. It looks like once again this tiny country the first in the region to legalize divorceand womens suffrage is about to teach its neighbors a big lesson.
