Pubdate: Sun, 05 Aug 2012
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2012 El Paso Times
Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/townhall/ci_14227323
Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/
Author: Matilde Campodonico

URUGUAY MAY LEGALIZE POT TO STOP TRAFFICKERS

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - The government in Uruguay may soon get its hands
dirty with marijuana as part of a rising movement in Latin American
nations to create alternatives to the U.S.-led war on drugs.
Uruguay President Jose Mujica first called for "regulated and controlled
legalization of marijuana" in a security plan unveiled last month.
U.N. officials say no other country has seriously considered creating a
completely legal state-managed monopoly for marijuana or any other
substance prohibited by the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

"In 1961, television was just black and white," said Julio Calzada,
secretary general of Uruguay's National Committee on Drugs. "Now we have
the Internet."

But the president's proposal has hit a gust of opposition. Doctors,
political rivals, security officials and marijuana users worried about
their privacy have all expressed concern about how marijuana would be
managed and whether legalization, or something close to it, would
accelerate Uruguay's worsening problem of addiction and crime.
President Mujica, 78, a bohemian former guerrilla, said this month
that if most Uruguayans did not understand legalization's value, he
would suspend his plan while hammering out the details and building
public support. But his government, which has a slim majority in
Parliament, is nonetheless moving forward. A presidential adviser said
this month that draft legislation would be submitted within a few
weeks. Calzada, meanwhile, said he had been busy calculating how much
marijuana Uruguay must grow to put illegal dealers out of business. He
has concluded that with about 70,000 monthly users, the haul must be
at least 5,000 pounds a month.

"We have to guarantee that all of our users are going to be able to
get a quality product," he said.

He added that security would be another challenge. Uruguayan officials
imagine allowing individual smokers to cultivate marijuana for their
own noncommercial use while professional farmers provide the rest by
growing it on small plots of land that could be easily protected.
Personal marijuana use is decriminalized in Uruguay.

The government would also require users to sign up for registration
cards in part to track and limit Uruguayans' purchases - to perhaps 40
joints a month, officials say. Finally, there would be systems to
regulate levels of THC and levy taxes on producers, relying for
enforcement on the agencies regulating tobacco, alcohol and
pharmaceuticals. Officials acknowledge that by trying to beat drug
kingpins at their own game, Uruguay would need to co-opt old foes. And
many in the drug treatment community have their doubts.

"You're never going to get rid of the black market," said Pablo Rossi,
director of Fundacion Manantiales, which runs several residential
treatment centers in Montevideo.
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MAP posted-by: Matt