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World's First National Legal Marijuana Market
Posted by CN Staff on May 07, 2014 at 05:18:21 PT
By Hannah Hetzer 
Source: Huffington Post
Uruguay -- On Friday, Uruguay released its long-anticipated regulations accompanying the law that was signed into effect last December, which made Uruguay the first country in the world to legally regulate the production, sale and consumption of marijuana for adults.Drug prohibition has devastating effects on people's lives around the globe, from the 650,000 marijuana possession arrests per year in the United States to the 100,000 drug war deaths in Mexico in the past seven years. Amidst growing consensus among political leaders in Latin America that the war on drugs isn't working, Uruguay made this bold move in an effort to regulate an existing marijuana market currently controlled by illicit drug traffickers and to generate public health benefits by using marijuana tax revenue to fund educational programs aimed at preventing problematic drug use.
The Uruguayan marijuana regulation system will allow Uruguayan residents over the age of 18 to choose between three forms of access to non-medical marijuana: domestic cultivation of up to 6 plants per household; membership clubs where between 15 and 45 members can collectively grow up to 99 plants; and sales in licensed pharmacies of up to 10 grams per week.Marijuana consumers will have to register with the government for one of the three options. The registry data will be confidential and protected. Regardless of the form of access, each individual will only be able to possess 480 grams of marijuana per year. The government has also granted a 180-day amnesty period during which individuals can register their current plants, after which it will only accept applications seeking prior permission to grow marijuana plants.The Uruguayan model places high emphasis on regulation, control and restrictions aimed at curbing potential negative effects of legalization. All forms of advertising and promotion of use are prohibited, as is smoking in closed, public spaces, in the workplace, and at health establishments, schools and sports institutions. Driving under the influence of marijuana is not allowed, and the newly created Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA), tasked with regulating and controlling the whole system, will set the THC limits and types of test performed for DUI.The regulations also include strong education and health components. While educational centers may ban people who are impaired from marijuana consumption from entering the premises, they are then obliged to offer support and information on marijuana use. Membership clubs also must educate and inform their members about responsible marijuana consumption and the IRCCA must promote harm and risk reduction strategies related to problematic use of marijuana. And though the price of marijuana was not set in the regulations, during Friday's press conference Presidential Under-Secretary Diego Cánepa announced that the price would be flexible, and would begin at roughly $1 per gram, in an effort to undercut the current illicit market for marijuana. The government will now embark on the implementation of the legal marijuana market, which is expected to be up and running by the end of 2014.The war on drugs has not worked. It is refreshing to see a small, trailblazing country pave the way for more intelligent, coherent and humane drug policies. When other countries wake up to the fact that arresting people for nonviolent marijuana offenses and letting drug cartels control the market is completely counterproductive, they will follow the example being set by Colorado, Washington and now Uruguay.Hannah Hetzer is the policy manager of the Americas at the Drug Policy Alliance and was based in Montevideo, Uruguay in 2013.Source: Huffington Post (NY)	Author: Hannah Hetzer Published: May 6, 2014Copyright: 2014 HuffingtonPost.com, LLC Contact: scoop huffingtonpost.comWebsite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/4oz5FI7bCannabisNews   -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #16 posted by Oleg the Tumor on May 12, 2014 at 12:27:48 PT:
480 grams per year? Do I have that right?
That's about 1 lb. Do they shut you off after that? I must need a new pair of glasses.
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on May 10, 2014 at 21:52:37 PT
Indeed....
It will be wonderful.
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on May 10, 2014 at 08:48:16 PT
Afterburner
There will be dancing in the streets.
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Comment #13 posted by afterburner on May 09, 2014 at 21:55:05 PT
When the Drug War Really Ends...
We'll be dancing in the streets!Martha & The Vandellas - Dancing In The Street 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaTU4H--BUEMartha & The Vandellas-Dancing In The Street (Karaoke) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axk0RzWcIK8
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on May 08, 2014 at 19:38:21 PT
Hope
I agree with you. I can't believe how hard to has been for people to see. It is just good common sense. 
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on May 08, 2014 at 19:22:45 PT
You know what we all need? :o)
A couple of weeks at a cannabis friendly spa in Colorado.Wouldn't that be nice?
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on May 08, 2014 at 19:17:23 PT
*Smile*
That's so true, FoM.I was thinking of Willie Nelson last night. Apparently he's turned into a bit of a cranky old man. At eighty one he has a right. No doubt. I'd love to see him be able to see real legalization every where... and have some good years to enjoy that better world. What a long strange trip this speaking out against injustice and hoping for justice and sanity has been. For Willie, I'm sure it seems even longer than it seems to most of us. Heinously so.I used to feel like giving up on the average of every two weeks. We all gave each other encouragement when we felt like giving up. The ignorance and cruelty of people is insane... and tiring. It's tiring trying to reason, year after year, with people that just won't be reasonable.It's like having to deal with the same people that gave us the Inquisition and witch burning. People that won't listen to reason and commons sense and continue in persecuting their fellow humans. "Stupid, arrogant, idiotic bastards" is what I often find myself wanting to say about the prohibitionists and persecutors. But you don't, of course, like hard talk... which is mostly foolishness anyway... and doesn't help a thing... and I don't either, really. But sometimes... it's just the truth.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on May 08, 2014 at 13:45:46 PT
Just Legalize Marijuana
I am so tired of jumping through hoops. The Republicans mostly look for all kinds of ways to trip it all up. 
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on May 08, 2014 at 12:55:14 PT
Yes... it's getting better...
but I do tend to agree with schmeff and afterburner about the regulations that are really, somehow, kind of creepy. They aren't digging up many whipping posts, doesn't look to me like. Maybe painting them a different color.They are also going to be spending a beau-coup on enforcing those outrageous regulations. And they'll have names abd addresses and be able to come into any registered persons home at any time they want to... or take their herb and test it. That register is creepy. The genetics thing is creepy. The prohibitionist would call us paranoid. I have to wonder what they are so freaking paranoid about to feel the need to come up with so many invasive and condescending rules.Yes. I think it's safe to say he really is an old reactionary.It's a step forward... I guess. It kind of has a weird loop back look to it, though. Laws different from the Presidente's view of what he thinks they should be, are not "Fiction". If anything, his view of Colorado law is "Fiction".
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Comment #7 posted by schmeff on May 08, 2014 at 07:37:27 PT
Orwellian
I hate to rain on any program that seems to move us forward, but as the details slowly come out, Uruguay's 'reforms' seem more like a calculated method of absorbing cannabis smokers into the Matrix.Assuming the program doesn't collapse under the weight of it's own regulations, there are countless ways to exploit, punish and harass cannabis consumers built into the system. Uruguay looks like it is ramping-up the Drug War into new and terrifying levels of genetic intrusion.Like Jews in pre-war Germany, cannabis consumers will be licensed and put in some sort of registry (don't worry, it's for your own protection). If there is any freedom involved, it would seem to be in the hands of law enforcement: the freedom to choose a limited genetic base to be available, and the freedom to randomly and endlessly test the DNA of any suspected herb, and presumably any suspected cannabis consumer.It's as if the Government decided there will be three varieties of apples available to consumers, and you must have government permission (a license) to purchase apples. Maybe an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but you can have only one apple a week. Within strict limits, you can grow your own apples, provided you become a licensed apple grower. But the rules of licensing prohibit you from breeding or making any crosses between the three sanctioned varieties, under threat of punishment. The Government can come into your house and check your pantry for compliance.Let Freedom ring! 
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on May 08, 2014 at 05:30:54 PT
Hope
Thank you for the article. We are slowly winning!
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on May 07, 2014 at 22:28:34 PT
May 12 is next Monday.
Uruguay leader calls Colorado pot law 'a fiction'http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/02/4094058/uruguay-leader-calls-colorado.html#storylink=cpy
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on May 07, 2014 at 17:55:20 PT
schmeff
I agree. My dad said to never register for any government list that might be used against you.
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Comment #3 posted by schmeff on May 07, 2014 at 14:32:51 PT
Confidential and Protected
If anyone believes any database anywhere in the world is confidential and protected, they haven't been paying attention.
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Comment #2 posted by afterburner on May 07, 2014 at 10:59:12 PT
The Price Is Right
{
Marijuana consumers will have to register with the government for one of the three options. The registry data will be confidential and protected. 
}This is refreshing! Confidential and protected registry: what a contrast with Canada's new MMPR regulations that demanded that MMJ home growers' mix their crops with kitty litter, throw in the garbage or face disclosure of their addresses to the RCMP.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 07, 2014 at 07:26:56 PT
$28 an Ounce
That is perfect!
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