Pubdate: Sat, 21 Dec 2013
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2013 MetroWest Daily News
Contact:  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619

URUGUAY LEADS ON LEGALIZATION

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.

The commercial planting, harvesting and sale will be under the 
control of a state Institute for the Regulation and Control of 
Cannabis. Sales will be limited to Uruguayan nationals 18 and older, 
to head off the possibility of becoming a drug tourism destination, 
and exports will be prohibited.

Uruguay's action is part of a growing sense that the U.S. war on 
drugs has been a dangerous and expensive failure that has cost the 
lives of thousands and fostered an atmosphere of lawlessness. Even in 
Uruguay, which was never a major producer or consumer, saw 
drug-related homicides rise from one in five to one in three over the decade.

Shortly before he left office, Mexican President Vicente Fox, who 
battled unusually powerful and violent drug cartels, became an 
outspoken advocate for legalizing drugs, especially marijuana, whose 
cultivation he said he would take up if it ever became legal.

Diego Canepa, the chief of staff to Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, 
told The Wall Street Journal, "The war on drugs has been a failure in 
Latin America. It's been seen that the U.S. has given the dollars and 
we've given the bodies."

The Uruguayan experiment will test several theories put forward by 
advocates of legalization here and elsewhere. Proponents say that 
legalization will take much of the profit out of cultivation and thus 
the incentive for violence. The sale of marijuana at token prices 
will cut down on petty crime. And both taken together will undermine 
the drug cartels.

The United States should monitor the Uruguayan experiment in the 
spirit of trying to learn something, not to discredit legalization. 
Our prison system has become ridiculously costly, housing inmates 
given long sentences for minor drug infractions. Attention should 
also be paid to experiments in Colorado and Washington state, where 
marijuana has become legal under state law, if not federal. There, 
the foundations of civilization seem to have survived - at least so far.

Equally important is the developing research, stifled for decades by 
the criminalization of marijuana, into the potential medical uses of 
cannabis. In states where medical use is legal, it is proving a good 
pain-killing alternative to opiates. Scientists in Israel and 
elsewhere are exploring its use in treating cancer, diabetes and 
other illnesses.

A new chapter is opening in the history of this complicated plant. 
American leaders should watch these experiments with open minds.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom