{"id":131688,"date":"2012-08-31T13:36:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T17:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=131688"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:03:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:03:44","slug":"south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/","title":{"rendered":"South America’s Path To Drug Legalization"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> South America Sees Drug Path to Legalization<\/a> by Damien Cave in the New York Times.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> 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 \u2014 marijuana \u2014 as part of a rising movement in this region to create alternatives to the United States-led war on drugs.<\/p>\n

Uruguay\u2019s famously rebellious president first called for \u201cregulated and controlled legalization of marijuana\u201d 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 \u201cprobably the most dangerous drug in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a profound change in approach,\u201d said Sebasti\u00e1n Sabini, one of the lawmakers working on the contentious proposal unveiled by President Jos\u00e9 Mujica on June 20. \u201cWe want to separate the market: users from traffickers, marijuana from other drugs like heroin.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

Legalizing and regulating not just drug use, but also drug transport \u2014 perhaps with large customs fees for bulk shipments? President Otto P\u00e9rez 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Doing so would make Uruguay the world\u2019s first marijuana republic \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1961, television was just black and white,\u201d said Julio Calzada, secretary general of Uruguay\u2019s National Committee on Drugs. \u201cNow we have the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

But kicking the prohibitionist habit, it turns out, is no easy task. Even here in a small, progressive country of 3.3 million people, the president\u2019s proposal has hit a gust of opposition. Doctors, political rivals, marijuana users and security officials have all expressed concern about how marijuana would be managed and whether legalization, or something close to it, would accelerate Uruguay\u2019s worsening problem of addiction and crime.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mujica, 78, a bohemian former guerrilla who drives a 1981 Volkswagen Beetle, seems to be surprised by the response. He said this month that if most Uruguayans did not understand legalization\u2019s value, he would suspend his plan while hammering out the details and building public support. But this is a defiant leader who spent more than a decade in jail as a political prisoner, so even as he discussed postponement, he signaled that he might not be willing to give up, emphasizing that drug users \u201care enslaved by an illegal market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey follow the path to crime because they don\u2019t have the money,\u201d he said, \u201cand they become dealers because they have no other financial means to satisfy their vice.\u201d<\/p>\n

His government, which has a slim majority in Parliament, is moving forward. One of the president\u2019s advisers said this month that draft legislation would be submitted within a few weeks, and Mr. Calzada, among many others, has been hard at work. His desk is covered with handwritten notes on local drug markets. A career technocrat with the long, wispy hair of an aging rocker, he said he had been busy calculating how much marijuana Uruguay must grow to put illegal dealers out of business. He has concluded that with about 70,000 monthly users, the haul must be at least 5,000 pounds a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to guarantee that all of our users are going to be able to get a quality product,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that security would be another challenge. Drug cartels protect their product by hiding it and with the ever-present threat of violence. Uruguayan officials, including Mr. Sabini \u2014 one of several lawmakers who openly admits to having smoked marijuana \u2014 favor a more neighborly approach. They imagine allowing individuals to cultivate marijuana for their own noncommercial use while professional farmers provide the rest by growing it on small plots of land that could be easily protected.<\/p>\n

The government would also require users to sign up for registration cards to keep foreigners away \u2014 an idea influenced by a new policy in the Netherlands, which restricts marijuana sales to residents \u2014 and to track and limit Uruguayans\u2019 purchases (to perhaps 40 joints a month, officials say). Finally, there would be systems set up to regulate the levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and levy taxes on producers, relying for enforcement on the agencies regulating tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

Officials acknowledge that by trying to beat kingpins like the Mexican Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n, known as Chapo, at their own game, Uruguay would need to co-opt old foes and join forces with the same drug aficionados it has been sending to jail for years.<\/p>\n

That means cozying up to people like Juan Vaz. A thin, dark-haired computer programmer and father of three who is perhaps Uruguay\u2019s most famous marijuana activist, Mr. Vaz spent 11 months in prison a few years ago after being caught with five flowering marijuana plants and 37 seedlings. In an interview, he compared marijuana to wine, and expressed both interest and alarm at the government\u2019s plans. He said he was pleased to see the Mujica administration tackle the issue, but like many others, he said he feared government control.<\/p>\n

Personal marijuana use is already decriminalized in Uruguay, so Mr. Vaz, 45, said the idea of a registry for producers and users amounted to an Orwellian step backward. \u201cWe\u2019re concerned about the violation of privacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other growers and smokers, who spoke on the condition that they were not fully identified, appeared more eager to take part. Mart\u00edn, 26, a bearded programmer whose closet full of marijuana plants added a unique aroma to his apartment complex, said his friends had been talking about starting a small marijuana farm.<\/p>\n

Gabriel, 35, a dealer and user who lives downtown, said that he welcomed a legal market and hoped it would hamper the darker side of the drug business. He said that he had been selling marijuana on and off for 15 years \u2014 moving a little more than two pounds a month \u2014 and that the people he bought from had often pressured him to take on more dangerous drugs like cocaine paste, a cracklike substance that has spread wildly through the region since 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cPasta base,\u201d as it is called here, is generally blamed for Uruguay\u2019s recent rise in drug addiction and violent crime, and Mr. Mujica has said that legalizing marijuana would break the cycle of addiction and delinquency that begins when users become dealers.<\/p>\n

Many in the drug treatment community have their doubts. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to get rid of the black market,\u201d said Pablo Rossi, director of Fundaci\u00f3n Manantiales, which runs several residential treatment centers in Montevideo.<\/p>\n

But Gabriel said that big dealers would inevitably adapt. The question is: for good or ill? Maybe they would start selling cocaine cheaper, he said, causing more problems. Or maybe they would be pushed out of the drug business entirely. For now, at least, they mostly seem to be afraid of change: he said a kilogram of marijuana (2.2 pounds) now costs about $470 in Uruguay, up from around $375 before the legalization proposal was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are trying to make as much money as they can,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cThey think legalization is imminent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: South America Sees Drug Path to Legalization by Damien Cave in the New York Times. The Text: 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 \u2014 marijuana \u2014 as part of a rising movement in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSouth America's Path To Drug Legalization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Countries across South America begin moving towards legalizing drugs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South America's Path To Drug Legalization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Countries across South America begin moving towards legalizing drugs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prose Before Hos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-31T17:36:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-26T21:03:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/\",\"name\":\"South America's Path To Drug Legalization\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-31T17:36:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-26T21:03:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\"},\"description\":\"Countries across South America begin moving towards legalizing drugs.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"South America’s Path To Drug Legalization\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\",\"name\":\"Prose Before Hos\",\"description\":\"The Far Side Of Politics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\",\"name\":\"Article of the Day\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"South America's Path To Drug Legalization","description":"Countries across South America begin moving towards legalizing drugs.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"South America's Path To Drug Legalization","og_description":"Countries across South America begin moving towards legalizing drugs.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/","og_site_name":"Prose Before Hos","article_published_time":"2012-08-31T17:36:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-26T21:03:44+00:00","author":"Article of the Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_site":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Article of the Day","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/","name":"South America's Path To Drug Legalization","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-08-31T17:36:37+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-26T21:03:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e"},"description":"Countries across South America begin moving towards legalizing drugs.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/08\/31\/south-americas-path-to-drug-legalization\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"South America’s Path To Drug Legalization"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/","name":"Prose Before Hos","description":"The Far Side Of Politics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e","name":"Article of the Day","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133489,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131688\/revisions\/133489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}