Cannabis Country
By DANIEL POLITI, NYT
BUENOS AIRES — For the people of Buenos Aires, Uruguay, the small country just across the Río de la Plata estuary, can seem like paradise. It’s 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 world’s 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.
(More here.)
BUENOS AIRES — For the people of Buenos Aires, Uruguay, the small country just across the Río de la Plata estuary, can seem like paradise. It’s 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 world’s 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.
(More here.)
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