Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
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Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
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Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#2This is a good start.
By removing the profit motive from cannabis production it helps to reduce cartel receipts, helps to reduce smuggling, and separates cannabis from other, truly harmful, drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroin.
That so many US states have already made provisions to either decriminalize medical use, and or recreational use, by individuals, serves to illustrate that cannabis is nowhere near as dangerous as governments have attempted to portray cannabis as being.
There is absolutely no reason for the DEA to classify cannabis as a Schedule One drug when legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco are responsible for an exponentially greater amount of negative social impacts when compared with cannabis.
Case in point?
Amsterdam.
Just look at the statistics regarding "hard" drug use in the Netherlands, as well as incarceration rates, and homicide rates.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/netherlands_v_us#sthash.ta7j...
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#3Well, I'm from Uruguay, so I'll be glad to answer any questions on the subject :)
The bill was proposed by the governing left wing Broad Front coalition, and voted by all their congressmen.
While the vote appears close, there was more consensus than is shown.
My party (Partido Independiente, the smallest of the four represented) decided not to vote the whole bill, but only some parts, because they're for legalization, but against some of the particulars of the bill.
The most troubling aspects of the bill are:
- The state will license and regulate private cannabis farms and then sell the marijuana at pharmacies.
- There will be a monthly limit of 40 grams per person and
- all consumers will have to register.
My representative, Dr. Daniel Radío (a medical doctor), had presented an alternative bill, and so had Dr. Lacalle Pou (a lawyer) from the major opposition party Partido Nacional.
The other big opposing party, Partido Colorado, is strongly against legalization, which makes sense since it mostly represents right-wing / military types and the elderly.
For a quick summary of the political positions:
Broad Front - Left wing - more akin to Democrats in U.S. (but way more left wing). They include all the spectrum from the former left wing guerrillas, communists, european-style socialists, etc.
Partido Nacional / "Blancos" - Right wing - more akin to Republicans, but pretty centrist overall. Hit very hard by corruption when they formed government.
Partido Colorado - Right wing - akin to Republicans, include most extreme right wing types. Their government led to the military dictatorship.
Partido Independiente - tries to be moderate left wing.
There are an estimate 180.000 consumers of marijuana in my country, about 5% of the population.
Edit: one of the main criticisms was about self cultivated marijuana, which was finally contemplated in the bill.
President Mujica (a very colorful character) said this:
"We are not going to say that weed is good. What happens is, consumers don't give a damn about our advice, but we won't leave them stranded because of that. And they like the adventure of buying from the drug dealer around here and there, because it is illegal. And while it's clandestine, you can smell marijuana around in many places"
"Nosotros nos vamos a decir que la maruja es buena. Lo que pasa es que los que consumen no dan bola a los consejos y no por ello hay que dejarlos en banda. Y están atrás de la aventura de comprarle al narcotraficante por aquí y por allá porque es clandestino. Y aunque es clandestino el olor se siente por muchas partes"
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#4[deleted]
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#5Good for them, lets hope more follow.
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#6This is a good start. By removing the profit motive from cannabis production it helps to reduce cartel receipts, helps to reduce smuggling, and separates cannabis from other, truly harmful, drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroin. That so many US states have already made provisions to either decriminalize medical use, and or recreational use, by individuals, serves to illustrate that cannabis is nowhere n…
I remember the Netherlands had so few criminals that it had to shut down several prisons and lay off hundreds of staff members and started importing criminals from other countries like Belgium on a contract basis because of the lack of people to incarcerate. [1]
This is the country where you could just drive into its capital and buy every strain of cannabis you can possibly imagine and different strains of psilocybin magic mushrooms without so much as a howdy and an ID if you looked younger than 18.
[1] http://vorige.nrc.nl/international/article2246821.ece/Nether...
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#7Well, I'm from Uruguay, so I'll be glad to answer any questions on the subject :) The bill was proposed by the governing left wing Broad Front coalition, and voted by all their congressmen. While the vote appears close, there was more consensus than is shown. My party (Partido Independiente, the smallest of the four represented) decided not to vote the whole bill, but only some parts, because they're for legalization…
> The state will license and regulate private cannabis farms and then sell the marijuana at pharmacies
Curious why this is troubling... I can understand arguments for limiting government regulation, but I'm okay with cannabis being regulated much like alcohol is. Does this go beyond that? I don't have much knowledge of the inner workings of alcohol regulation, so it's hard for me to compare.
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#8Well, I'm from Uruguay, so I'll be glad to answer any questions on the subject :) The bill was proposed by the governing left wing Broad Front coalition, and voted by all their congressmen. While the vote appears close, there was more consensus than is shown. My party (Partido Independiente, the smallest of the four represented) decided not to vote the whole bill, but only some parts, because they're for legalization…
According to your depiction of Uruguayan parties the "Partido Nacional" is more centrist than the "Patido Colorado". I'm not sure if I agree with that.
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#9Well, I'm from Uruguay, so I'll be glad to answer any questions on the subject :) The bill was proposed by the governing left wing Broad Front coalition, and voted by all their congressmen. While the vote appears close, there was more consensus than is shown. My party (Partido Independiente, the smallest of the four represented) decided not to vote the whole bill, but only some parts, because they're for legalization…
> The state will license and regulate private cannabis farms and then sell the marijuana at pharmacies Curious why this is troubling... I can understand arguments for limiting government regulation, but I'm okay with cannabis being regulated much like alcohol is. Does this go beyond that? I don't have much knowledge of the inner workings of alcohol regulation, so it's hard for me to compare.
Yes, alcohol is freely sold everywhere, the only restriction is for minors (under 18, not 21).
There are worries about discrimination, and pharmacies telling who their customers are (since every sale is registered under your ID).
For comparison, cigarettes and alcohol are anonymous (you might be asked to show an ID, but it's not stored anywhere).
Re: Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
#10Well, I'm from Uruguay, so I'll be glad to answer any questions on the subject :) The bill was proposed by the governing left wing Broad Front coalition, and voted by all their congressmen. While the vote appears close, there was more consensus than is shown. My party (Partido Independiente, the smallest of the four represented) decided not to vote the whole bill, but only some parts, because they're for legalization…
According to your depiction of Uruguayan parties the "Partido Nacional" is more centrist than the "Patido Colorado". I'm not sure if I agree with that.
Both are right-wing, and both contain centrist and more right-wing factions, but I do believe the Partido Colorado is more right wing.
It's not always a bad thing, I for instance would like a harder stance on security. But they do have some very troubling individuals, and my family knows Dr. Pedro Bordaberry (the son of the one that led to the dictatorship, and current leader of the party) extremely well, and he is extremely right wing.
My girlfriend was secretary of one of the sectors of the Partido Nacional, so I also know a lot of people there, and in my opinion they're slightly more centrist, but (also strictly IMO) they still have a huge problem with cronyism and corruption, not that the governing party doesn't, but they haven't managed to purge that yet.