Uruguay government says it plans to sell marijuana to registered users

[HHHG]

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay’s national government said Wednesday it hopes to fight a growing crime problem by selling marijuana to citizens registered to buy it, and will send a bill to Congress that would make it the first country in the world to do so.

Under the plan, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana and only to adults who register on a government database, letting officials keep track of their purchases over time.

Minister of Defense Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro told reporters in Montevideo that the measure aims to weaken crime in the country by removing profits from drug dealers and diverting users from harder drugs.

He said the bill would be sent to Congress soon, but an exact date had not been set.

“We’re shifting toward a stricter state control of the distribution and production of this drug,” Fernandez said. “It’s a fight on both fronts: against consumption and drug trafficking. We think the prohibition of some drugs is creating more problems to society than the drug itself.”

Uruguayan newspapers have reported that money from taxes on marijuana sold by the government would go toward rehabilitating drug addicts. The government did not provide details.

There are no laws against marijuana use in Uruguay. Possession of the drug for personal use has never been criminalized.

Media reports have said that people who use more than a limited number of marijuana cigarettes would have to undergo drug rehabilitation.

Some Uruguayans wondered how successful such a measure could be.

“People who consume are not going to buy it from the state,” said Natalia Pereira, 28, adding that she smokes marijuana occasionally. “They’re going to be mistrust buying it from a place where you have to register and they can typecast you.”

A debate over the move lit up social media networks in the country, with some people worried about free sales of marijuana and others joking about it.

“Legalizing marijuana is not a security measure,” one man in the capital of Uruguay wrote on his Twitter account.

“Ha, ha, ha!” joked another. “I can now imagine you going down to the kiosk to buy bread, milk and a little box of marijuana.”

The idea is to weaken crime by removing profits from drug dealers and diverting users from harder drugs.

“The main argument for this is to keep addicts from dealing and reaching (crack-like) substances” such as base paste, said Juan Carlos Redin a psychologist who works with drug addicts in Montevideo. “Some studies conclude that a large number of base paste consumers first looked for milder drugs like marijuana and ended with freebase.”

Redin said Uruguayans should be allowed to grow their own marijuana because the government would run into trouble if it tries to sell it. The big question he said will be, “Who will provide the government (with marijuana)?”

“If they actually sell it themselves, and you have to go to the Uruguay government store to buy marijuana, then that would be a precedent for sure, but not so different than from the dispensaries in half the United States,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of U.S.-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

Uruguay government says it plans to sell marijuana to registered users - The Washington Post

[acid I]

Uncle Sam ... just aint gunna be happy bout this I swear ..The thought that soveriegn nations dare to think of making internal policy that dosn't reflect the global seriousness ,,ness ,, of the WAR ON DRUGs
without seeking approval first is just plain outragous !!!!!!

[Mother ShaBooBoo]

The shift into a new world is starting to happen! Just a little to slow for my taste.

[shantibaba]

By Associated Press, Published: June 21
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay has announced that it plans to send a bill to Congress to legalize marijuana sales as a crime-fighting measure.
The government would have a monopoly over the distribution and sales of the drug, which could be sold only to adults registered as users.
Minister of Defense Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro told reporters at a press conference in Montevideo the measure aims to weaken crime in the country by removing profits from drug dealers and diverting users from harder drugs.
Uruguayan newspapers had reported that money from taxes on marijuana cigarettes sold by the government will go toward rehabilitating drug addicts. The government did not provide details.
There are no laws against marijuana use in Uruguay. Possession of the drug for personal use has never been criminalized.
Ref: Uruguay government says it plans to sell marijuana to registered users - The Washington Post

Is Uruguay About To Become The First Country To Legalize Cannabis?

NORML
by Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director
June 20, 2012


Ironically, around 4:20pm (eastern) today, the phones lit up at NORML with numerous newswire services and major media outlets contacting the organization about a bill in Uruguay that appears to be on greased tracks to pass in the legislature and signed into law by President Jose Mujica as the government itself is proffering the reform legislation.
If Uruguay moves forward, the country will become the first since the signing of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961 that has moved forward with a tax-n-regulate policy for non-medical access to cannabis products. The country previously decriminalized cannabis possession in the 1970s.
Two other immediate positive consequences are likely for Uruguay with legalized cannabis:
1) Tourism! Like worldwide tourism!! I’m already looking in Uruguay for good fly fishing areas on Google Maps and buffing up on my Espanol…move over Amsterdam and Jamaica.
2.) Scientific and medical research regarding the remarkable therapeutic qualities of cannabis, along with unfettered research and commercialization of industrial hemp, can find a home in a country where the country’s leaders have the foresight to embrace the myriad of cannabis commerce, rather than waste valuable taxpayers’ dollars on trying to enforce feckless and unenforceable Cannabis Prohibition laws in otherwise freedom-loving, free market-oriented countries.
President ‘Choom Gang‘ Obama, the next time the long festering public policy matter of Cannabis Prohibition is raised in your presence, rather than uncomfortably laugh it off as an unserious policy unworthy of both your attention and wont to reform, consider contacting Uruguay President Jose Mujica.
Ref:Is Uruguay About To Become The First Country To Legalize Cannabis? | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform


21 June 2012

Uruguay government aims to legalise marijuana

Uruguay has unveiled a plan to allow state-controlled sales of marijuana to fight a rise in drug-related crime.
Under the bill, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana to adults registered on a database.
Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro said this was part of a plan to remove profits from drug dealers and divert users from harder drugs.
He said that the recent increase in murder rates was a clear symptom of a rise in drug trafficking crimes.
Ground-breaking bill
"We believe that the prohibition of certain drugs is creating more problems for society than the drugs themselves... with disastrous consequences," Mr Fernandez Huidobro said, presenting the bill.
"Homicides related to settling scores have increased, and that's a clear sign that certain phenomena are appearing in Uruguay that didn't exist before," he said.
The authorities blame the rise in crime in Uruguay on hard drugs, specifically crack cocaine.
The new bill envisages that some shops would be allowed to sell marijuana cigarettes at a price fixed by the authorities.
The government also wants to create a user database to supervise consumption.
BBC regional correspondent Vladimir Hernandez says the move is seen as groundbreaking in South America.
Several Central American leaders - including the presidents of Guatemala and Costa Rica - have spoken of the need to consider decriminalising some drugs in an attempt to undermine cartels.
In Uruguay alone, the illegal marijuana market is estimated to be worth about $75m (£48m) a year.
But the new bill has already proved controversial, and the debate in Congress could take several months, our correspondent says.
Ref: BBC News - Uruguay government aims to legalise marijuana