Pubdate: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2013 Associated Press Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1 Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 NATION POISED TO BECOME 1ST WITH LEGAL MARIJUANA MARKET 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. Congress' lower house already passed the measure, and senators rejected all proposed amendments before Tuesday's final debate, so Senate approval would send the law to Mujica for his signature. Mujica, a 78-year-old former leftist guerrilla who was behind bars during the years when many others of his generation experimented with marijuana, said his government's goal is to combat organized crime and reduce drug use. Polls say two-thirds of Uruguayans oppose the plan, despite a national TV campaign and other lobbying efforts funded by billionaire currency speculator and philanthropist George Soros, whose Open Society Foundation and Drug Policy Alliance campaigned for the proposal. Uruguay's drug czar, Julio Calzada, said his office is working hard so that rules will be in place by mid-April. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom