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Is Uruguay Govt's marijuana idea potty?
The Sun Friday 22 Jun 2012 URUGUAY'S government has announced plans to sell marijuana in a bid to to take drug profits out of the hands of dealers. The novel idea would mean only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana to adults who register on a database. Officials would be able to keep track of punters' purchases over time and profits would reportedly go toward rehabilitating drug addicts. If approved, the plans - backed by the administration of left wing President Jose Mujica - would make Uruguay's national government the first in the world to directly sell marijuana to its citizens. Some local governments do so. "It's a fight on both fronts: against consumption and drug trafficking", said Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro. "We think the prohibition of some drugs is creating more problems to society than the drug itself." Fernandez said the bill would soon be sent to Congress, which is dominated by Mujica's party, but that an exact date had not been set. Directly The move has been met with a mixture of mirth and criticism in Uruguay. Natalia Pereira, 28, who says she smokes marijuana occasionally, said: "People who consume are not going to buy it from the state. "There is going to be mistrust buying it from a place where you have to register and they can typecast you." Reports have said that people who use more than a limited number of marijuana joints would have to undergo drug rehabilitation. "I can now imagine you going down to the kiosk to buy bread, milk and a little box of marijuana!" one person in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, wrote on Twitter. A series of recent gang shootouts and rising cocaine seizures have raised security concerns in one of Latin America's safest countries and taken a toll on Mujiica's already dipping popularity. The Interior Ministry says from January to May, the number of murders jumped to 133 from 76 in the same period last year. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4387161/Is-Uruguay-Govts-marijuana-idea-potty.html
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