As Uruguay inches closer to nabbing the title as the first nation to legalize marijuana, President Jose “Pepe” Mujica has asked for international support to legalize the plant.
Much to the United Nation’s chagrin, in August Uruguay became the first country to pass a bill that would legalize marijuana at a national level, as well as regulate the production, distribution and sale of marijuana.
Although its 30-member Senate has passed the Mujica-approved legalization legislation, the bill has not yet passed the country’s 99-member Chamber of Representatives.
Part of the delay may be related to the fact that the U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board has asked the Latin American nation to reconsider passing a law allowing non-medical use of marijuana, citing “serious consequences for the health and welfare of the population and for the prevention of cannabis abuse among the youth.”
In 1961, Uruguay, like the United States, signed the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which is an international drug control treaty that limits the use of narcotic drugs, including marijuana, exclusively for medical and scientific purposes. Recreational use or legalization then is a violation of this treaty.
In a recent interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha De Sao Paulo, Mujica said that he has never smoked marijuana, so his own feelings about the drug have nothing to do with his desire to pass the law.
“I don’t defend it, I wish it didn’t exist,” Mujica said. “No addiction is good. We are regulating a market that already exists. We can’t close our eyes to it. Repression has failed.
“We proposed the bill because of Uruguay’s traditions. From 1914, 1915 to the 60s, alcohol was monopolized by the government. We produced and sold our own grapa, cachaça and rum for over 50 years. It was for a greater good and the money went to public health care. That’s what we are doing now.”
Mujica said his country will not become the land of “free marijuana,” and reiterated that the bill would allow the country’s estimated 200,000 marijuana consumers to use the drug without worrying about any legal implications. To prevent “marijuana tourism,” the law will only apply to Uruguayans and those legally living in the country.
“We are asking the world to help us with this experience, which will allow the adoption of a social and political experiment to face a serious problem – drug trafficking,” Mujica said.
He added that “The effects of drug trafficking are worse than those of the drugs themselves.”
Although Uruguay has not borne the brunt of the bloodshed caused by drug trafficking in South America, the black market drug industry is responsible for the deaths of thousands each year in Latin America.
According to Uruguay’s National Drugs Committee, marijuana use has doubled in the country during the past year, and an estimated 22 tons of marijuana are sold annually in Uruguay alone. While marijuana is not yet legal in Uruguay, the New York Times reported that many law enforcement authorities largely tolerate its use.
Despite silence from most of the world regarding Uruguay’s proposed marijuana law, many of the South American nation’s neighbors are closely watching this legislation process play out, and if it is successfully enacted, some speculate other nations throughout Latin America may also move to legalize the drug.
According to a recently leaked U.N. document, many Latin American countries are fed-up with the U.S.-led “War on Drugs” and are calling for changes to the U.N.’s current drug policy, which would include treating drug use as a public health issue instead of a criminal problem, since the U.N.’s current policy fails to recognize the “dynamics of the drug criminal market.”