In Uruguay pharmacies future marijuana should be offered, consumers can purchase up to 40 grams per month. The leftist government is pushing the project, the Parliament has now called for the legalization. Not all Uruguayans are thrilled.

In Latin America are heated debates about the legalization of marijuana. Some experts are of the opinion that the drug cartels are fighting the better – by the mafia is removed from a source of income. Even Francis Pope addressed the legalization of intoxicants on his trip to Brazil, but spoke out against it.

Uruguay now going ahead, however. The leftist government of President José Mujica wants to legalize marijuana, the House of Representatives has already voted for this. On Wednesday evening, 50 MPs voted for it, 46 against it. The bill was thus waved through, now needs to be confirmed by the Senate. There, the government also has a small majority.

The law gives the state the right to a “control and regulation of import, export, cultivation, harvesting, production, purchase, storage and commercial distribution of cannabis and its by-products.” What is planned specifically?

 

* Marijuana users must be described in a register. You can buy up to 40 grams per month in licensed pharmacies.

* Alternatively, they may grow up to six cannabis plants.

* In the bill, the formation of marijuana clubs from 15 to 45 members is provided, which could cultivate up to 99 plants.

* The cultivation and trade shall be controlled by a state commission.

* Minors is forbidden to use. Also advertising for marijuana use is prohibited.

 

So far, the use of cannabis and possession for personal use is allowed in Uruguay, but banned the trade and cultivation. The new push is not supported by a recent survey, only 26 percent of respondents, while 63 percent of respondents were opposed.

The opposition parliamentarians Gerardo Amarilla spoke of “playing with fire”, the “a generation sacrificed” without guarantee of success and possibly create more drug addicts than before.

But the goal was “not encourage consumption, because the there are already,” said the MP, Sebastian Sabini, who belongs to the ruling coalition. Instead, the business with the drug should freed from the clutches of the mafia and therefore an important source of funding for organized crime to be drained. President Mujica said last year: “I’m afraid of the drug trade not before the drugs..”

Uruguay Drugs:”Mother of all battles”

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José María Insulza welcomed the Uruguayan initiative. The American continent is suffering more than any other region of the world in drug-related violence. The main cause is the struggle for the distribution billion business with cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics.

On appropriate counter-strategies has long been argued. Vicente Fox from 2000 to 2006, President of Mexico, wanted to run against organized crime, “the mother of all battles”. He sent the Mexican army in the war on drugs. Today Vicente Fox says that the war was “totally failed”. It calls for the decriminalization of drugs.

Even General Otto Pérez Molina, President of Guatemala, is of the opinion that consumption and production of drugs should be legalized within certain limits.

In Portugal, the possession of small amounts of marijuana is no longer punishable. In the UK, an independent commission investigating the British drug policy and concludes: The policy of harsh punishment is both expensive and ineffective. The report does not demand the release of drugs, but requires a rethink of drug policy.

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