South America sees path to drug legalization

[villian]

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — The agricultural output of this country includes rice, soybeans and wheat. Soon, though, the government may get its hands dirty with a far more complicated crop — marijuana — as part of a rising movement in this region to create alternatives to the United States-led war on drugs.

Uruguay’s famously rebellious president first called for “regulated and controlled legalization of marijuana” in a security plan unveiled last month. And now all anyone here can talk about are the potential impacts of a formal market for what Ronald Reagan once described as “probably the most dangerous drug in America.”

“It’s a profound change in approach,” said Sebastián Sabini, one of the lawmakers working on the contentious proposal unveiled by President José Mujica on June 20. “We want to separate the market: users from traffickers, marijuana from other drugs like heroin.”

Across Latin America, leaders appalled by the spread of drug-related violence are mulling policies that would have once been inconceivable.

Decriminalizing everything from heroin and cocaine to marijuana? The Brazilian and Argentine legislatures think that could be the best way to allow the police to focus on traffickers instead of addicts.

Legalizing and regulating not just drug use, but also drug transport — perhaps with large customs fees for bulk shipments? President Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala, a no-nonsense former army general, has called for discussion of such an approach, even as leaders in Colombia, Mexico, Belize and other countries also demand a broader debate on relaxing punitive drug laws.

Uruguay has taken the experimentation to another level. United Nations officials say no other country has seriously considered creating a completely legal state-managed monopoly for marijuana or any other substance prohibited by the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Doing so would make Uruguay the world’s first marijuana republic — leapfrogging the Netherlands, which has officially ignored marijuana sales and use since 1976, and Portugal, which abolished all criminal penalties for drug use in 2001. Here, in contrast, a state-run industry would be born, created by government bureaucrats convinced that opposition to marijuana is simply outdated.

“In 1961, television was just black and white,” said Julio Calzada, secretary general of Uruguay’s National Committee on Drugs. “Now we have the Internet.”

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[THC2LSD]

This is a giant step forward. To think it came from a country many haven't even heard of.

I actually like the idea of it being under a government monopoly. I think it should also be made by co-ops and individuals. I feel that big tobacco, alcohol and pharma would fuck shit up. They would get into the cannabis market and probably do what they already do with their products. Not that I wouldn't like cannabeer, pre-rolled joints, and pharmaceuticals made from cannabis. Just feel that mainly small growers should be the way to go for recreational users. Though nothing gets done unless someone's making money off it in this capitalist society. Corporations will have a large piece of the pie.

I could see a compromise being that cannabis could be moved to schedule V. It could be regulated like ephedrine and weak codeine syrup, yet be OTC.