Uruguayans will be allowed to buy enough marijuana to roll about 20 joints a week at a price well below the black market rate, the government said on Tuesday as it detailed a new law legalizing the cannabis trade.
The Uruguayan Congress in December last year approved a law allowing the cultivation and sale of marijuana, law aimed at wresting the business from criminals.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica on Tuesday signed a decree outlining the fine print of the new policy. It says Uruguayans will be able to buy up to 10g of marijuana a week at between US$0.85 and US$1 a gram, a low price designed to compete with black market cannabis that comes mostly from Paraguay.
Activists backing the measure said legalized marijuana would be high-grade and affordable.
“You can’t compare a flower that is quality-controlled by the Public Health Ministry ... with Paraguayan [stuff], which is absolutely harmful because it has external substances,” Bruno Calleros of the Cannabis Liberation Movement said.
He said legal marijuana would cost about 20 percent of the current market price for similar high-quality marijuana.
Each Uruguayan will also be allowed to grow up to six marijuana plants or the equivalent of 480g for personal use and form smoking clubs of 15 to 45 members that can grow up to 99 plants per year.
Uruguay has come under the spotlight for the marijuana law championed by Mujica, a 78-year-old former Marxist guerrilla.
Uruguay has gone further than countries that have decriminalized possession or, like the Netherlands, tolerate the sale of marijuana in “coffee shops.”
The US states of Washington and Colorado have legalized the sale of cannabis under license, but federal laws still prohibit it.
Uruguay’s experiment is being keenly watched by Latin American peers at a time when the US-led war on drugs faces mounting criticism. Success in Uruguay could fuel momentum for legalization elsewhere.
Advocates of legalization say that criminalization fuels violence and corruption in developing countries where the drugs are produced or transported, but critics warn that Uruguay’s law could pave the way for harder drugs and lure addicts to Montevideo.
Uruguay will only allow marijuana to be available to Uruguayan residents who are registered in a confidential database.
Still, Mujica has said the country could backpedal if the law fails to work out as planned.
“We’re looking to hurt drug trafficking by snatching part of its market,” he said on Friday last week, stressing that the law does not seek to foment drug use. “No addiction is good... The only one I recommend to young people is love.”
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