Yahoo – AFP,
Ana Ines Cibils, 3 May 2014
Juan
Manuel, owner of the first shop dedicated to cannabis merchandising
in
Montevideo, smokes a joint on April 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Miguel Rojo)
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Montevideo
(AFP) - Uruguay on Friday took a major step in setting rules for the
government-regulated sale of marijuana, a daring experiment supported by the
country's iconoclastic president.
Officials
said that customers can buy up to 10 grams of marijuana a week at a price of 20
to 22 pesos (about $0.90) per gram.
The small
South American country in December became the first in the world to announce
that it would regulate the market for cannabis and its derivatives, a bold move
by authorities frustrated with losing resources to fighting drug trafficking.
The new
rules state that the officially-sanctioned marijuana will have a 15 percent
concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- the plant's main psychoactive
ingredient -- and come in five varieties.
View of a
cannabis plant grown inside
a house in Montevideo, on April 26,
2014 (AFP
Photo/Miguel Rojo)
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The decree
regulating pot sales is due to be signed by ministers Monday and published
Tuesday, said National Drug Board president Diego Canepa.
The new
rules are supported by President Jose Mujica, a former guerrilla and medical
doctor who leaves office this year.
Pot by
December
Once the
degree is signed, the government will issue a call for applicants for a limited
number of marijuana production licenses.
Canepa
estimated that legal marijuana will be available in pharmacies in December.
The
official price is based on production costs and profits for the producers and
pharmacies, Canepa said.
The total
volume consumed in Uruguay -- a country of 3.3 million people -- "falls
around 18 to 22 tons" of cannabis per year, said National Drug Board
secretary general Julio Calzada.
"Based
on this, we need a maximum of 10 hectares (25 acres)" of crops to meet
demand, he added.
Although it
has not been illegal to consume marijuana in Uruguay since the 1970s, the sale
and distribution of cannabis had been forbidden.
"It
was a relief when the law was approved, because I would no longer have to go to
a 'boca'" said Claudia, 36, a mother of three children, who used the slang
word for an illegal sales point.
The
government's registration requirement however may scare away some potential
legal buyers.
"There
are some people who are afraid of registering because of their work. And if an
anti-marijuana government comes to power, the database could be used against
them," said Juan Pablo Tubino, owner of a Montevideo store that
specializes in cannabis.
The black
market for marijuana -- where minors, foreigners and registration refusniks can
get their weed -- will likely remain.
A man cuts
flowers from a cannabis plant in the back yard of his home
in Montevideo on
April 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pablo Porciuncula)
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However the
new law could "modify" that market, said commissioner Cesar Manuel
Sosa, who leads the Directorate for Combating Drug Trafficking.
A
controversial experiment
People who
grow pot for their individual use or for "clubs" say they are already
seeing an increase in theft of their hot commodity.
"Now
we see more cultivators, we know that there are a lot of people who plant, and
that's why there is theft. Me, I've been robbed, my friends and their
acquaintances as well. And that's happening all over the country," said
Juan Andres Palese, producer and co-owner of another cannabis shop.
Heavily
criticized by the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board (INCB),
Uruguay's marijuana experiment is being closely followed by countries eager to
find an alternative to the expensive and violent "war on drugs"
spearheaded by the United States.
Hannah
Hetzer from the US organization Drug Policy Alliance said there is global
interest in studying what aspects of Uruguay's pot-controlling experience can
be applied to other countries.
"There
is a consensus in several countries that what we are doing in the war on drugs
is not working, but not on what the correct answer would be," said Hetzer.
"There
are always risks in any reform of drug policies," she said.
Map showing marijuana use by country and main producing states (AFP)
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