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Uruguay: Marijuana soon to be legalized in Uruguay, but only for citizens
The Voice of Russia Thursday 01 Aug 2013 Among other bold policies already adopted or being processed by the government of ex-guerilla José Mujika are the abortion rights law, which allows first trimester abortions, the legalization of gay marriages, and the country’s quest to seek renewable energy sources to develop. The long debate in the lower chamber ended by a 50 to 46 vote in favor of the sweeping bill, which is currently being deliberated in the Senate, but senators assured the president that they will provide the necessary majority. According to the president, the adoption of the bill is vital for the country’s security and reinforcement as it might take a load off the police allowing them to spare forces to fight real crime and control more serious drug-trafficking. Laura Blanco, president of Uruguay’s Cannabis Studies Association, called the new bill very innovative, setting a brave example for other Latin American countries. Lawmakers claimed that unregulated drug business "finances organized crime" and that "marijuana use has doubled in the last 10 years" in the small, mostly rural South American country of 3.4 million. "The regulation is not meant to promote consumption, consumption already exists," lawmaker Sebastian Sabini, who helped draft the legislation, said at the beginning of the session. Uruguay's National Drug Board (JND) has said that the country is home to approximately 20,000 daily marijuana users and some 120,000 total consumers. Juan Vaz, a spokesman for the Association of Cannabis Studies, told AFP that he thinks the official figures on consumption are marked down, with the real number of regular users getting closer to 200,000. After the bill is passed, the chain of production and distribution will be strictly regulated and supervised, while all marijuana purchases will be confined to the pharmacies. When this is done the situation should improve. The pharmacists also expressed discontent by the fact they will have to sell drugs “in a pharmacy, which is considered a health center," Virginia Olmos, president of the Association of Chemists and Pharmacists of Uruguay stated to AFP. As an estimated 63% of Uruguayans are still against the bill, while the government is determined to launch an educational campaign revealing the benefits of marijuana’s medical applications and having a home-grown product as opposed to those smuggled from Paraguay. Under the bill people will be limited to 6 plants per household to grow for personal use. Special cooperatives will have the right to cultivate as many as 99 plants. Private companies could grow the drug for commercial purposes, but they will only sell the harvest to the government, which would distribute it to the licensed pharmacies. Each marijuana purchaser will be registered and limited to 40 grams per month. Regardless of these provisions many Uruguayans fear that loosening the grip on marijuana might attract tourists to the country in search of an easy drug. To prevent this, the legislation only granted access to marijuana purchases to the country’s citizens. In Latin America and beyond, proponents of loosening drug laws predict the Uruguayan measure, though still in process, will encourage similar efforts in other countries. Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_08_01/Marijuana-soon-to-be-legalized-in-Uruguay-but-only-for-citizens-8718/
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