Uruguay,
a nation of 3.3 million tucked between Argentina and Brazil, became the world’s
first nation to legalize the cultivation, sale and use of marijuana in a move
aimed at curbing the cost of combating drug trafficking.
Lawmakers
approved the bill by a count of 16-13 after a 12-hour debate in the Senate on 9
December. The law will create a state-regulated market with prices set by the
government and allow pharmacies to sell as much as 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of
marijuana a month to registered users who must be over 18 years old and
residents of Uruguay.
Uruguay,
led by 78-year-old former guerrilla Jose Mujica who
has also legalized gay marriage during his presidency, is spearheading a
movement in Latin America
to combat drug trafficking by legalizing the use of the psychoactive substance.
In the U.S., Colorado
and Washington last year
became the first states to legalize the recreational use and sale of cannabis.
Medicinal marijuana is legal in 20 U.S. states including California. Research to
find alternatives to prohibition has been funded by billionaire George Soros, who met Mujica in New York
in September.
Mujica
said he hopes the measure will provide savings for the government which is
spending $80 million a year combating drug trafficking.
Mujica’s
initiative faces resistance from neighbors nervous
about spillover across their borders and almost
two-thirds of Uruguayans are wary that the government’s plan could go wrong,
according to an opinion poll.
Mujica
said that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told him she didn’t think the measure
would work in Brazil because of the size of her country. Brazil last month sent
a delegation to Uruguay to express concern about the proposed legislation.
In
a Cifra/Gonzalez Raga & Asociados
survey, 61 percent of
Uruguayans said they opposed legalizing the sale of cannabis while 28 percent expressed support. About 11 percent
had no opinion. The Aug. 15-24 poll of 1,004 people had a margin of error of
three percentage points.
Setting
the correct price will be one of the government’s main challenges, John Walsh, Senior
Associate for Drug Policy and the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin
America, said. While the authorities will probably seek to undercut illegal
drug dealers with a lower price, if the government sets the price too low,
illegal drug dealers may seek to divert supplies from the government market to
the black market.
Support
for the legalization of cannabis is growing and more countries will follow
Uruguay’s example, said Tom Angell, chairman of federal policies at the
Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based organization that lobbies for
marijuana policy reform.
“Uruguay’s
move is a pretty clear signal that the global war on marijuana is ending. Next
year more U.S. states are likely to vote on legalization, and leaders of other
countries in Latin America are talking about the need for a new approach,”
Angell said in an e-mailed statement. “This industry is being brought
aboveground and taken out of the hands of drug cartels and gangs.”