[k5wTvu9f]

By Anthony Bond
PUBLISHED: 10:57 GMT, 21 June 2012 | UPDATED: 11:05 GMT, 21 June 2012




Uruguay could become the first country in the world to sell marijuana to its citizens as it attempts to fight a growing crime problem.
Under the plan, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana to adults who have registered on a government database - letting officials keep track of their purchases over time.
Minister of Defense Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro said the measure aims to weaken crime in the country by removing profits from drug dealers and diverting users from harder drugs.

Plans: Uruguay could become the first country in the world to sell marijuana to its citizens as it attempts to fight a growing crime problem

He said the bill would be sent to Congress soon, but an exact date had not been set.

'We're shifting toward a stricter state control of the distribution and production of this drug,' Mr Fernandez Huidobro said.
'It's a fight on both fronts: against consumption and drug trafficking. We think the prohibition of some drugs is creating more problems to society than the drug itself.'




Uruguayan newspapers have reported that the money from taxes on marijuana sold by the government would go towards rehabilitating drug addicts.

There are no laws against marijuana use in Uruguay. Possession of the drug for personal use has never been criminalized.

Media reports have said that people who use more than a limited number of marijuana cigarettes would have to undergo drug rehabilitation.


Interesting: Only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana to adults who have registered on a government database. Ministers are pictured announcing the plans - including the Uruguayan Minister of Defense, Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro, far right

But some Uruguayans have questioned how successful such a measure could be.

'People who consume are not going to buy it from the state,' said Natalia Pereira, 28, who smokes marijuana occasionally.

'They're going to be mistrust buying it from a place where you have to register and they can typecast you.'

A debate over the move lit up social media networks in the country, with some people worried about free sales of marijuana and others joking about it.

'Legalizing marijuana is not a security measure,' one man in the capital of Uruguay wrote on his Twitter account.

'Ha, ha, ha!' joked another. 'I can now imagine you going down to the kiosk to buy bread, milk and a little box of marijuana.'

Juan Carlos Redin, a psychologist who works with drug addicts in the capital Montevideo, said: 'The main argument for this is to keep addicts from dealing and reaching (crack-like) substances.'


Problems: Uruguay is among the safest countries in Latin America but recent gang shootings and rising cocaine seizures have raised security concerns

'Some studies conclude that a large number of base paste consumers first looked for milder drugs like marijuana and ended with freebase.'

Mr Redin said Uruguayans should be allowed to grow their own marijuana because the government would run into trouble if it tries to sell it.
The big question he said will be, 'Who will provide the government (with marijuana)?'
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of U.S.-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, said the move would make Uruguay the only national government in the world selling marijuana.
'If they actually sell it themselves, and you have to go to the Uruguay government store to buy marijuana, then that would be a precedent for sure, but not so different than from the dispensaries in half the United States,' he said.
Numerous dispensaries on the local level in the U.S. are allowed to sell marijuana for medical use.
Possession of marijuana for personal use has never been criminalized in the South American country and a 1974 law gives judges discretion to determine if the amount of marijuana found on a suspect is for legal personal use or for illegal dealing.

Under pressure: Recent security concerns have taken a toll on the already dipping popularity of leftist President Jose Mujica, pictured

'This measure should be accompanied by efforts to get young people off drugs,' ruling party Senator Monica Xavier told channel 12 local TV.

But other drug rehabilitation experts disagree with the planned bill altogether.

Guillermo Castro, head of psychiatry at the Hospital Britanico in Montevideo says marijuana is a gateway to stronger drugs.

'In the long-run, marijuana is still poison,' Castro said adding that marijuana contains 17 times more carcinogens than those in tobacco and that its use is linked to higher rates of depression and suicide.

'If it's going to be openly legalized, something that is now in the hands of politics, it's important that they explain to people what it is and what it produces," he said.

'I think it would much more effective to educate people about drugs instead of legalizing them.'

Uruguay is among the safest countries in Latin America but recent gang shootings and rising cocaine seizures have raised security concerns and taken a toll on the already dipping popularity of leftist President Jose Mujica.

The Interior Ministry says from January to May, the number of homicides jumped to 133 from 76 in the same period last year.

Overburdened by clogged prisons, some Latin American countries have relaxed penalties for drug possession and personal use and distanced themselves from the tough stance pushed by the United States four decades ago when the Richard Nixon administration declared the war on drugs.

'Out of all the drugs that are used for psychoactive effect, this is the least toxic, and the least potential for harm," said Lester Grinspoon, associate professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School.

'It may take some time to find a regulatory system that everyone can be comfortable with,' Grinspoon added of Uruguay's proposed sale of the drug.

'There's a growing recognition in the region that marijuana needs to be treated differently than other drugs, because it's a clear case that the drug laws have a greater negative impact than the use of the drug itself,' said Coletta Youngers, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.

'If Uruguay moved in this direction they would be challenging the international drug control system.'





http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...SELL-cannabis-

[CaseyFan]

By Anthony Bond
PUBLISHED: 10:57 GMT, 21 June 2012 | UPDATED: 11:05 GMT, 21 June 2012



'If Uruguay moved in this direction they would be challenging the international drug control system.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...SELL-cannabis-

American bankers will not share profits.. that could start a war....

In 2010, United Nation´s Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa told the Austrian magazine Profil that drug money has been the only thing that has kept many major banks in business.
http://www.examiner.com/article/just...cartel-profits

The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich "consuming" countries – principally across Europe and in the US – rather than war-torn "producing" nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed. And its authors claim that financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go after western banks in pursuit of the massive amount of drug money being laundered through their systems.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...-cocaine-trade

[trowUrillioth]

horrible

[JewJoleSole]

So...
When do we start bombing... er... I mean "freeing" Uruguay?

[Feloascarlelt]

It's high time that something like this was done! [/sarc]

[k5wTvu9f]

So...
When do we start bombing... er... I mean "freeing" Uruguay?

Hasnt it been done ,everywhere else has ................

[Feloascarlelt]

Hasnt it been done ,everywhere else has ................

Uruguay is a major threat to us. They have WMDs (weed of mass destruction).

[Aozenee]

ballpark estimate for Mendocino is that they grow about $1 Billion worth of Vitamin 420 every year.

California has that BIG ass deficit ?

it makes sense.

[Kilsimpaile]

Cannabis is not a drug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BREAK YOUR CONDITIONING!

[Helloheshess]

So .gov gets to make money on it (I bet the sell bonds based on revenue projections of this too) but one cannot grow it due to pushing in on .gov's turf now?

[MilenaMKB]

I don't see much difference between their government selling pot, and certain states where they have state liquor stores selling booze.

[mynaflzak]

Interesting thing about liquor is that the government has an absolute iron grip on it. You can make your beer and wine at home because that's a fermentation process. But you can never distill alcohol under any circumstance. Only recently an exception was made if you are producing ethanol for fuel, in that case it's only permitted if you add some gasoline to it.

[GfBTWMmV]

Interesting thing about liquor is that the government has an absolute iron grip on it. You can make your beer and wine at home because that's a fermentation process. But you can never distill alcohol under any circumstance. Only recently an exception was made if you are producing ethanol for fuel, in that case it's only permitted if you add some gasoline to it.

I think of it as a monopoly on spirits. I wonder why somethings are called "spirits". There are spirits in chemistry but is that a technical name for something or is it an alchemical name for something?

Some cultures may have had a better understanding of spirits than we do. Native Indian for one. I know people get plonked on beer and wine, both of which contain ethanol/methanol as the alcohol form. Spirits on the other hand are something another level again. Some spirits cause pretty severe behaviour abhorations in some people. Dark Rum for instance is known to cause significant craziness in drinkers.

I'd suggest that spirits cause hallucinations at the very least. The question for me is, is the drinker really halucinating or are the seeing something they can not normally see when not inebriated?

If you think about the people who take hallucinogens and claim spiritual experiences, good or bad, it's logical that other hallucinogens

[k5wTvu9f]

I don't see much difference between their government selling pot, and certain states where they have state liquor stores selling booze.

Except they let you but as many bottles of say vodka as you like ,drink them and then you hit the pavement, but thats OK.

[pupyississido]

Am I the only person who thinks that all the people pictured as "Ministers of Uruguay" look like Khazars?




Here is some Uruguayans from another article. They look South American to me.

[AutoCadPhotoSHOP]

I think of it as a monopoly on spirits. I wonder why somethings are called "spirits". There are spirits in chemistry but is that a technical name for something or is it an alchemical name for something?

Some cultures may have had a better understanding of spirits than we do. Native Indian for one. I know people get plonked on beer and wine, both of which contain ethanol/methanol as the alcohol form. Spirits on the other hand are something another level again. Some spirits cause pretty severe behaviour abhorations in some people. Dark Rum for instance is known to cause significant craziness in drinkers.

I'd suggest that spirits cause hallucinations at the very least. The question for me is, is the drinker really halucinating or are the seeing something they can not normally see when not inebriated?

If you think about the people who take hallucinogens and claim spiritual experiences, good or bad, it's logical that other hallucinogens

I enjoy spirits of almost every kind (I recently bought a bottle of some Brazilian rum distilled from sugar cane), and I've never, ever hallucinated on alcohol. I've never heard of alcohol opening any doors of perception or "third eye" or anything like that.

[AutoCadPhotoSHOP]

Am I the only person who thinks that all the people pictured as "Ministers of Uruguay" look like Khazars?




Here is some Uruguayans from another article. They look South American to me.

Ugh, that guy looks like he's smoking a burrito!

[Aminkaoo]

I enjoy spirits of almost every kind (I recently bought a bottle of some Brazilian rum distilled from sugar cane), and I've never, ever hallucinated on alcohol. I've never heard of alcohol opening any doors of perception or "third eye" or anything like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe

Absinthe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


For the "Absinthe" travelling circus, see Spiegelworld.

A reservoir glass filled with a naturally coloured verte absinthe, next to an absinthe spoon


Albert Maignan's "Green Muse" (1895): A poet succumbs to the Green Fairy.
Absinthe (i/ˈæbsɪnθ/ ab-sinth or /ˈæbsænθ/ ab-santh; French: [absɛ̃t] ) is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic (45–74% ABV / 90-148 proof) beverage.[1][2][3][4] It is an anise-flavouredspirit derived from botanicals, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium (a.k.a. "grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. Absinthe traditionally has a natural green colour but may also be colourless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as "la fée verte" (the green fairy). Although it is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a liqueur, absinthe is not traditionally bottled with added sugar, and is therefore classified as a spirit.[5] Absinthe is traditionally bottled at a high level of alcohol by volume, but is normally diluted with water prior to being consumed.
Absinthe originated in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland in the late 18th century. It arose to great popularity as an alcoholic drink in late 19th- and early 20th-century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers. Owing in part to its association with bohemian culture, the consumption of absinthe was opposed by social conservatives and prohibitionists. Ernest Hemingway, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Vincent van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley and Alfred Jarry were all known absinthe drinkers.[6]
Absinthe has often been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug.[7] The chemical compound thujone, although present in the spirit in only trace amounts, was blamed for its alleged harmful effects. By 1915, absinthe had been banned in the United States and in much of Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although absinthe was vilified, it has not been demonstrated to be any more dangerous than ordinary spirits. Any psychoactive properties attributed to absinthe, apart from that of the alcohol, have been much exaggerated.[7] A revival of absinthe began in the 1990s, following the adoption of modern European Union food and beverage laws that removed longstanding barriers to its production and sale. By the early 21st century, nearly 200 brands of absinthe were being produced in a dozen countries, most notably in France, Switzerland, USA, Spain, and the Czech Republic.

[pupyississido]

I enjoy spirits of almost every kind (I recently bought a bottle of some Brazilian rum distilled from sugar cane), and I've never, ever hallucinated on alcohol. I've never heard of alcohol opening any doors of perception or "third eye" or anything like that.

My favorite Rum I ever had was from the Dominican Republic, also from sugar cane. You could drink it straight, it was so sweet.