MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP)- Uruguay's drug czar says every legal marijuana plant in the country will be registered and tracked using radio frequency tags and genetic markers to make sure what's grown there stays there. Julio Calzada has described the plans for Uruguay's government-run marijuana market in an interview with The Associated Press. He says the rules will be published next month and the first government-grown plants won't be ready until the end of the year. He says it will take that long to harvest genetically identical pot from cloned plants whose product can be identified as legal by the authorities. [end]
MONTEVIDEO , ( Reuters) - The United States and Europe need a new strategy in the war on drugs and should look at alternatives such as the regulated sale of marijuana, says Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, whose country recently legalized the production and sale of cannabis. In an interview with Reuters yesterday, the 78-year-old former left-wing guerrilla said the world's biggest economies, which are the biggest markets for illegal narcotics, need to tackle drug trafficking using tools other than prohibition. [continues 138 words]
Marijuana Shops Make Plans For Expansion Montevideo, Uruguay (AP) - Juan Andres Palese was using a fake name in public when he opened Uruguay's first store dedicated to cultivating marijuana, where he offered growing equipment and advice but no illegal plants or seeds. Now that President Jose Mujica's plan to create and regulate the world's first national marijuana market has the force of law, Palese's plans have grown. His tiny shop, Urugrow, is already too small to support a rising number of clients, and he'll be moving to a larger, higher-profile locale soon. Once the law's regulations are in place, he said he hopes to openly sell seeds and cuttings along with all the tools anyone needs to legally grow up to six plants in their own home. [continues 237 words]
Uruguay has volunteered to be the canary in the cannabis field. The small-population 3.4 million-Latin American nation has voted to legalize the growth and sale of marijuana. The country's senate narrowly, 16 to 13, approved a law allowing individuals over 18 to buy up to 40 grams - just over 1.4 ounces - a month from state licensed dealers. Individuals also have the alternative of growing up 1.06 pounds of pot for their own use. The price is likely to be around $1 a gram. [continues 332 words]
MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Uruguay's pioneering move to legalize the planting and sale of marijuana opens the door for a clandestine cottage industry of pot growers to transform into a legitimate business that could even export medical cannabis, a commodity in short supply. More and more countries are setting up medical marijuana programs to help relieve the pain of terminally-ill patients and treat other health conditions, but there are few legal sources of the drug in the world and Uruguay could tap that tight market. [continues 1077 words]
MONTEVIDEO (AFP) - Uruguay's Senate has approved a ground-breaking law that legalises marijuana, becoming the first nation to oversee the production and sale of the drug. After a marathon debate, 16 leftist senators out of 29 legislators voted yesterday in favour of the legislation championed by President Jose Mujica, who must now sign it into law. Outside the Senate, hundreds of cannabis-smoking supporters launched fireworks in what they dubbed "the last march with illegal marijuana". "The war against drugs has failed," said senator Roberto Conde as he presented the bill on behalf of the ruling leftist Broad Front, calling it an "unavoidable response" to that failure. [continues 293 words]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) - Uruguay's drug control chief, Julio Calzada, is a nervous man. As of Wednesday, he has just 120 days to deliver regulations controlling the world's first national marijuana market. President Jose Mujica's goal is to drive drug traffickers out of the dope business and reduce consumption by creating a safe, legal and transparent environment in which the state closely monitors every aspect of marijuana use, from seed to smoke. That means designing and maintaining an industry that is small, contained and profitable. [continues 584 words]
1st-In-World Law Will Allow Growth, Sale of Marijuana MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (Reuters) - Uruguay passed a law Tuesday allowing its citizens to grow, buy and smoke marijuana, becoming the first country in the world to legalize the full cycle, from cultivation and distribution to consumption of the drug. The government-sponsored bill, approved 16-13 in the Senate, provides for regulation of the cultivation, distribution and consumption of marijuana and is aimed at wresting the business from criminals in the small South American nation. [continues 410 words]
Measure Clears Final Hurdle; State to Regulate Growing, Selling of Drug Mexico city - Lawmakers in the small South American nation of Uruguay voted Tuesday to legalize and regulate marijuana, going further than any other country in the world toward decriminalizing the plant and lifting the stigma from its use. With the move, Uruguay leaps to the forefront of nations that have sought alternatives to criminal anti-narcotics enforcement, frustrated with the human and economic costs of fighting a drug war that rarely shows signs of progress. [continues 444 words]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) - Uruguay's Senate began its final debate Tuesday on an audacious and risky plan to create the first national marijuana market, with the state regulating the entire process of growing, selling and using a drug that's illegal almost everywhere else in the world. Approval late Tuesday was all but assured, given the ruling coalition's majority and support from President Jose Mujica, who said he personally hates pot and has never smoked it. Uruguay would then have 120 days to draft regulations imposing state control over the entire market for marijuana, from seed to smoke. Everyone involved would have to be licensed and registered, with government monitors keeping tabs to enforce limits, such as the 40 grams a month that any adult will be able to buy at pharmacies for any reason. [continues 134 words]
SANTIAGO, Chile - Uruguay's Senate approved legislation on Tuesday that will allow the country to legalize the cultivation and sale of marijuana on a nationwide scale. Uruguay's leftist president, Jose Mujica, a supporter of the measure, has signaled that he will enact the legislation in coming days. Under the legislation, approved by a vote of 16 to 13, Uruguay would create a state-run Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis to oversee the planting, harvesting and sale of marijuana. The drug would be sold at pharmacies, with buyers signing up in a state registry, a process enabling them to purchase up to 40 grams a month at $1 a gram. [continues 336 words]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) - Uruguay's Senate gave final congressional approval Tuesday to create the world's first national marketplace for legal marijuana, an audacious experiment that will have the government oversee production, sales and consumption of a drug illegal almost everywhere else. The vote was 16 to 13, with the governing Broad Front majority united in favor. The plan now awaits the signature of President Jose Mujica. Two-thirds of Uruguayans oppose a government-run marijuana industry, according to opinion polls. But Mujica said he's convinced the global drug war is a failure and feels bureaucrats can do a better job of containing addictions and beating organized crime than police, soldiers and prison guards. "Today is an historic day. Many countries of Latin America, and many governments, will take this law as an example," cheered Sen. Constanza Moreira, voting with the Broad Front majority. [end]
Uruguay is pushing ahead to create a legal marijuana market despite warnings from educators, psychiatrists and pharmacists of dangerous side effects. The Senate planned to debate the pot plan today, with approval by the ruling coalition widely expected before the night is over. Because senators turned away all requests for amendments after it passed the lower chamber, their vote will be final. President Jose Mujica says the point is not to promote marijuana use, but to push out organized crime. The government hopes that when licensed growers, providers and users can openly trade in the drug, illegal traffickers will be denied their profits and go away. [end]
Senate Expected to Pass World's Most Far-Reaching Legislation This Week Inhaling deeply from a large joint of unadulterated cannabis, Marcelo Vasquez grins at the imminent prospect of his outlawed passion becoming Uruguay's newest state-sanctioned industry. This week, the country's senate is expected to pass the world's most far reaching drug legalisation, which should transform Vasquez from a petty criminal into a registered user, grower and ultimately, he hopes, a respected contributor to society. That would be quite a change. After a police raid this year, Vasquez whose home doubles as a marijuana nursery - was jailed and 70 of his plants were confiscated. But the court case that followed now looks likely to go down as one of the last cannabis trials in his country's history. [continues 1232 words]
FLORIDA, Uruguay - Pot connoisseurs of the world take note: Uruguay is about to go where no country has gone before by legalizing the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, with the left-of-center government regulating all facets of the trade. The initiative runs sharply counter to the Obama administration's anti-drug policies, which criminalize the use of marijuana, heroin and cocaine and rely on tough interdiction tactics to stop the flow of drugs from Latin America. But Julio Rey is eagerly preparing for the day when he and his friends can form a cannabis club to grow marijuana in the lot next to his home in this sleepy farming town 60 miles north of the capital, Montevideo. [continues 860 words]
To Cut Smuggling, Landmark Bill Will Allow Mass Production for All FLORIDA, URUGUAY - Pot connoisseurs of the world take note: Uruguay is about to go where no country has gone before by legalizing the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, with the left-of-center government regulating all facets of the trade. The initiative runs sharply counter to the Obama administration's antidrug policies, which criminalize the use of marijuana, heroin and cocaine and rely on tough interdiction tactics to stop the flow of drugs from Latin America. [continues 1128 words]
Radical Rethink of Way to Tackle War on Drugs Government Will Bring in Strict Quality Controls Buenos Aires - Uruguay is set to become the first country in the world where the sale of cannabis will not only become legal and government controlled but, at around $1 a gram, probably also the one with the most affordable marijuana anywhere. A senate vote to legalise the drug is expected in mid-November as part of an effort in the South American country to explore alternatives in the war on drugs. [continues 688 words]
(AP) - Uruguay's drug czar says the country plans to sell legal marijuana for $ 1 per gram to combat drug-trafficking, according to a local newspaper. The plan to create a government-run legal marijuana industry has passed the lower house of Congress, and President Jose Mujica expects to push it through the Senate soon as part of his effort to explore alternatives in the war on drugs. The measure would make Uruguay the first country in the world to license and enforce rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for adult consumers. [end]
President Is Close to Legalizing Pot Use After Doing the Same for Abortion, Gay Marriage; Critics Say Social Services Worsening MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay-This South American nation of just 3.3 million people has become the site of a socially liberal experiment of sorts. In the past year, Uruguay's center-left government has taken on a raft of issues long seen as taboo in conservative Latin America. Abortion was legalized last year, and in August gay couples began to marry under new legislation. In the coming weeks, the Senate is expected to approve a bill that would give Uruguay the world's most liberal marijuana laws. [continues 916 words]
A Marijuana Legalization Plan in Uruguay Places the Drug's Management With the State MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY (AP) - The government of Uruguay makes Scotch whisky. It also makes and sells rum, vodka and cognac, and has done so for nearly a century. Many people consider this sideline of the state to be a historical accident - a wasteful and even eccentric contradiction. But President Jose Mujica says Uruguay's long experience at the center of the nation's liquor business makes it more than capable of dominating another substance: marijuana. [continues 715 words]
Inside Uruguay
