Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2012
Source: Day, The (New London,CT)
Copyright: 2012 New York Times
Contact:  http://www.theday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/293
Author: Damien Cave, New York Times News Service

URUGUAY CONSIDERS LEGALIZING MARIJUANA 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.

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 coopt 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: Jay Bergstrom