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Uruguay blazes trail as cannabis looks set to become legal Benedict Mander Financial Times Sunday 08 Dec 2013 Julio Rey’s eyes glow with pride as he shows off the sticky, pungent buds recently harvested from his homegrown marijuana plants, assured that it will be his last illegal crop ever. “We will no longer be treated as delinquents,” the devoted pot smoker and activist says beaming. He is confident that the Uruguayan government’s senate majority will enable the approval of a law to legalise the production, distribution and sale of cannabis on December 10. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ee3bc9a-5e76-11e3-8621-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2mswCiARH “Uruguay is doing something that has never been done anywhere else in the world,” he adds, excitedly displaying a diverse collection of seeds he hopes to grow. For the first time the entire chain from the production to consumption of marijuana will be legal on a national level – a policy that enjoys growing support among Latin American leaders as the “war on drugs” is increasingly seen to have failed. Although the US states of Washington and Colorado legalised cannabis a year ago, and it has long been decriminalised in some European countries such as the Netherlands, Uruguay’s historic move is blazing a trail that other countries could follow. While the law may burnish Uruguay’s image as one of the most progressive countries in the region – same-sex marriage was legalised and abortion decriminalised under leftist President José Mujica – the government emphasises that the policy is intended to regulate, not liberalise, the market for cannabis. “The market is already completely lacking regulations and in the hands of criminals,” says Julio Calzada, who heads Uruguay’s drugs secretariat. “The only way to stop this is to remove the profitability from drug traffickers’ business and put it into the hands of the state,” he said, estimating that some $30-$40m of cannabis is sold in the country of 3.4m inhabitants each year. If passed, the law will enable registered users to buy up to 40 grams a month from a limited number of pharmacies, which will be forbidden from selling to Uruguayans under the age of 18 and foreigners. It will also allow registered growers to have up to six plants, while co-operatives with up to 45 members can cultivate as many as 99 plants. "He [President José Mujica] is playing with the fate of a nation. If we get this wrong, we may not get another chance" - Daniel Radío, independent lawmaker A government-run institute will be set up to regulate the market, controlling prices and production levels, and advertising will be forbidden. A limited number of licences will be available to producers to cultivate marijuana for a 120,000-strong market that smokes about 22m tonnes a year – until now mostly poor-quality produce smuggled from Paraguay. But the implementation of the law will be riddled with challenges. A key issue will be pricing, says Sebastián Sabini, a lawmaker leading the campaign to introduce the new legislation. He says the price of legal cannabis will mirror the price on the black market in order to prevent a consumption boom – though he concedes there is likely to be an increase. It will instead compete by offering a better quality product that can be obtained safely. Even so, there are concerns that the illegal competition could move to undercut official prices, which will need to fund costly and complex regulation. Meanwhile, if the official price is set too low, as well as encouraging consumption, black market dealers could buy cheap state-financed produce and resell it at a profit. “We’re not going to get rid of narcotraffickers, if anything we’ll be generating more clients for them,” says Jorge Gandini, an opposition lawmaker, who points out that they will also continue selling harder drugs. He says that an illegal secondary market is bound to flourish as there will still be demand from underage consumers and possible drug tourism, while politicians, lawyers or doctors may prefer not to sign on to the federal registry, despite assurances that it will be secret. "To say that we are creating a problem is false – the problem already exists" - Sebastián Sabini, lawmaker Others such as Daniel Radío, an independent lawmaker who favours cannabis legalisation, criticise Mr Mujica for, in his own words, performing an “experiment” on his citizens. “He is playing with the fate of a nation,” says Mr Radío, who is concerned that the government’s failure to generate social consensus, only about 30 per cent of Uruguayans back the law, may compromise its success. “If we get this wrong, we may not get another chance.” Mr Radio adds that another problem is that the law contravenes several international narcotics conventions, including the 1988 Vienna Convention against the Illicit Traffic of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Nonetheless, Mr Sabini brushes aside fears that cannabis is a “gateway” drug, pointing out that only a 10th of marijuana smokers in Uruguay consume cocaine paste, a crack-like substance popular in the region. “That argument is based on fear, which won’t get us anywhere,” he said. “To say that we are creating a problem is false – the problem already exists.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ee3bc9a-5e76-11e3-8621-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2msvp95sJ
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