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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom