Pubdate: Thu, 04 Dec 2014
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Column: The Week in Weed
Copyright: 2014 North Coast Journal
Contact:  http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Grant Scott-Goforth

PUCKER UP

The peals of freedom will continue to reverberate in Uruguyan 
stoners' ears: Last week's presidential election in the South 
American pot paradise all but ensures that the country will create 
"the world's first state-run marijuana marketplace," according to NBC News.

Uruguay legalized marijuana in 2012 under the direction of President 
Jose Mujica. Designed to undermine drug traffickers who, by some 
accounts, were growing in power in the country, the move was 
unpopular with citizens.

Mujica made it legal to grow marijuana at home or through a 
registered club and, perhaps more revolutionary, to purchase 
marijuana grown by the government through a pharmacy.

That cultivation and distribution plan, which is still being ironed 
out, was challenged by one of Uruguay's more conservative 
presidential hopefuls. But on Sunday, the nation's previously 
anti-legalization populace voted 53 percent to 40 percent to elect 
Tabare Vazquez, who acted as the nation's president from 2005 to 
2010. Vazquez is expected to continue Uruguay's marijuana marketplace program.

Legalization is affecting the international drug trade, as Mexico's 
rural marijuana farmers are finding it more and more difficicult to 
make a living.

A grower in the hills of the Sinaloa state ("Mexico's marijuana 
heartland") told an NPR reporter that prices have dropped by around 
50 percent in the last several years. Previously, the unidentified 
cultivator said he could get $60 to $90 per kilo (2.2 pounds), but 
nowadays could only fetch $30 to $40 a kilo.

The plummeting price reflects a growing desire for pot grown in the 
U.S.A. - most notably among Americans, where it's becoming easier to 
get with spreading legalization, but also among Mexican buyers.

"We know the cartels are already smuggling cash into Mexico," a DEA 
spokesman told NPR. "If you can buy some really high-quality weed [in 
the U.S.], why not smuggle it south, too, and sell it at a premium?"

What will happen with Mexico's small marijuana farmers? The NPR 
interviewee said he'll likely turn to opium poppies.

Cross your fingers and blow. Washington state students and faculty 
are developing a breathalyzer test for THC. Currently, people 
suspected of doped driving are subject to blood tests. About a 
quarter of those came back positive in Washington State in 2013, 
according to the Seattle Times, but the results aren't immediately 
available to arresting officers.

While Washington does have a legal threshold of blood-THC level to 
determine impairment, it's unlikely that the breathalyzer under 
development will be able to detect a specific level of weed 
influence. The device will simply detect the presence of THC, which 
"could prove helpful to officers as they decide whether to arrest a 
suspected impaired driver," according to a Washington State 
University chemistry professor in charge of the project.

And your week in head-scratching headlines, both courtesy MSN:

3 LA Deputies Recovering After Entering Small Marijuana Farm (they 
were "overcome by fumes").

The Kardashians put Dave Grohl off marijuana (he was overcome by asininity).
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom