tagged w/ failed war on drugs
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Today the federal government has an opportunity to agree to review the scientific evidence related to the use of marijuana as a medicine. A lawsuit brought by Americans for Safe Access and other marijuana reform organizations is challenging the government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug — one for which there are no acceptable medical uses. One of the individual plaintiffs, Michael Krawitz, is a veteran of the Air Force, and uses medical marijuana to combat pain and PTSD. Krawitz’s claims concerning the medical benefits of marijuana have been echoed by physicians such as Donald Abrams from University of California, San Francisco, and Igor Grant from the University of California, San Diego. Both doctors have conducted research into the medical value of marijuana and have concluded that it does in fact exist.
http://www.theweedblog.com/federal-government-considering-medical-benefits-of-marijuana-again/Today the federal government has an opportunity to agree to review the scientific... more
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NEW YORK -- Voters in three states will decide next month whether to legalize the sale and use of marijuana. If a ballot measure in one of those states succeeds, as supporters predict, it may create a rare truce in the war on drugs -- and trigger a showdown with the federal government.
State-level legalization would climax decades of struggle by reformers to convince voters that marijuana presents less of a threat to public safety than legal drugs, including alcohol. It would also show that pro-pot activists have learned from previous losses, like California's Proposition 19.
"There's no doubt in my mind that at least one of them will pass," said Dan Riffle, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project.
His confidence appears justified. A September poll put support in Washington state at 57 percent. A Colorado poll out Monday from The Denver Post showed 48 percent in favor, versus 43 percent opposed. Support in Oregon was lagging.
Proponents have picked their battles. Legalization is only on the ballot in libertarian-leaning western states. Still-hostile state legislatures have been bypassed with ballot initiatives. And the presidential election will draw marijuana- friendly younger voters to polls.
Public support for marijuana legalization has been on a long-term upward curve, with a majority of Americans saying for the first time last year they favored it.
Translating that sentiment into success at the ballot box, however, has been difficult. Medical marijuana has the public relations advantage of using cancer victims as spokespersons. But legalizing marijuana for all adults has often been defined by opponents, who raised the specter of drug dealers and impaired drivers in California in 2010.
So in Washington state, where legalization is most likely to be approved, reformers carefully crafted the initiative to account for concerns from law enforcement officials. They have also made heavy use of former U.S. Attorney John McKay, who speaks credibly to public safety concerns.
"Essentially it was about building a relationship of trust," said Allison Holcomb, drug policy director for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who leads the campaign to pass the legalization ballot measure, known as Initiative 502.
The ACLU carefully poll-tested provisions of the initiative. An intoxication standard for marijuana's intoxicant was created to defuse concerns about users driving under the influence. Instead of leaving regulation up to municipalities, as would have been done under California's failed proposition, a single, statewide standard would be put in place.
The "libertarian wet dream of legal pot with no regulations" does not play well with voters, said Riffle.
Rather, people want safeguards. They also want to see a different kind of green. All three measures emphasize taxing marijuana sales to produce revenue for cash-strapped states. In Washington alone, the state's Office of Financial Management estimated that legalization could bring as much as $2 billion over five years in taxes.
Nothing in the evolution of the pro-pot movement will deter legalization opponents from trying to stop the ballot measures.
In Colorado, support for legalization seems to have dipped since last month. That's not unusual for ballot measures as Election Day approaches. But Laura Chapin, the spokeswoman for No on 64, said it shows her side's arguments are winning.
"I think a lot of that is due to people understanding that amending the Colorado Constitution to fully legalize recreational marijuana and create a marijuana industry in this state brings with it a lot of problems," Chapin said.
Marijuana opponents in Colorado have pointed to the standard issues of health and safety, but Chapin said they have also highlighted the appropriateness of the amendment method. "This is a case where the how matters as much as the why."
Nationally, drug warriors warn of a "constitutional confrontation" if states legalize marijuana sales.
"Federal law, the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court decisions say that this cannot be done, because federal law preempts state law," said Peter Bensinger, who headed the Drug Enforcement Administration under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
The Obama administration has rejected legalization in the past. but this election season, it has been silent on the topic. Pro-pot activists acknowledge that if President Barack Obama -- or Mitt Romney -- wanted to stop the collection of marijuana tax revenue, they likely could.
"There's a whole regulatory structure that this sets up, and if the federal government so chooses they can interfere with that," said Riffle. But he warned that if the feds did so, they would clash with the will of voters in the "laboratories of democracy" -- and against a very popular earmark in the Colorado measure.
"Essentially every action from the federal government there would mean hundreds of millions of dollars that wouldn't go to schools," Riffle said.
Voters, so far, seem unconcerned by the prospect of federal action. Travel author and television personality Rick Steves, a supporter of the Washington measure, said he has received support from across the political spectrum during his barnstorming tour of the state.
Steves pointed to Portugal, where problematic drug use has reportedly dropped by half since drugs were decriminalized in 2001, as an example of the positive change. And no, he added, Washington state will not start to look like another European destination if it legalizes marijuana.
"I don't foresee any Amsterdam kind of mecca here," Steves said. "I just see less people in jail and more social justice."NEW YORK -- Voters in three states will decide next month whether to legalize the sale... more
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SOURCE: http://chycho.blogspot.ca/2012/08/how-to-end-prohibition-supporting.html
The war on drugs is madness. If you haven’t figured this out yet then please proceed to Part B: “The solution to our environmental woes is to end prohibition”. See referenced works for additional information. If you’re already aware of the obvious then please continue.
Here is how we end America’s War on Drugs.
The instigator, the aggressor in this war was, is, and continues to be the United States of America. They started this legislative war and they are the main obstacle to peace. To end the global war on drugs prohibition laws in the United States must be repealed. To accomplish this task we look to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for answers.
In 2005 the DEA released the following statement when they began proceedings to extradite Marc Emery from Canada to the United States for drug trafficking related to his activities as an online cannabis seed retailer (emphasis added):
“Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group -- is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement…
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.”
Translation: One of the best ways to end America’s War on Drugs is to support grassroots organizations that are actively working towards repealing prohibition laws in the United States of America.
If the DEA is trying to prevent the flow of funds to “marijuana legalization groups”, then it is in our best interest to make sure that funds continue to flow to these organizations. Our support for organizations helping to repeal prohibition laws in the United States and Canada is what the DEA and those who oppose legalization fear. We should do our best to give them cause to fear us.
A few hundred thousand dollars in donations to these organizations brought the full weight of the United States government onto Marc Emery. In an attempt to neutralize Mr. Emery, the US government was forced to commit resources to this war that they cannot afford, so if we want to end prohibition, if we want freedom, there has never been a more opportune time then now to end the war on drugs.
Below you will find the names and websites of some of the more prominent groups spearheading the battle to end prohibition in the United States and Canada. They are trying to bring sanity back into our lives and I’m sure they would appreciate our help as much as we appreciate their efforts.
Organizations Working Towards Ending Prohibition
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
Erowid
Moms for Marijuana
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
Marijuana Policy Project (MPP)
DrugSense
Educators For Sensible Drug Policy (EFSDP)
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (USA) and NORML Canada
The November Coalition
Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER)
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA Network)
The Solution to Our Environmental Woes is to End Prohibition
One of the best solutions to our environmental problems is to repeal prohibition, and our first step towards a sustainable existence should begin with cannabis. Its assimilation back into our civilization is the safest, simplest, most efficient immediate solution that we can implement in time to prevent an environmental catastrophe.
Cannabis is a plant, and its use is as old as civilization itself. It has thousands of immediate and potential applications. Its cultivation rejuvenates the soil, it can replace wood products, it’s medicinal, and it can be used as building material, textiles, paint, plastic, fuel, paper, food and body care. It is one of the most important bounties of nature. It’s a plant that will help us achieve sustainability. It’s a plant that we were meant to use.
So what’s the hold up? The short answer is America’s War on Drugs. The United States began a legislative war on this plant genus 75 years ago and they do not want to give up the fight.
The war on drugs is not a war between nations; it’s a corporate war on humans, irrelevant of their nationality or ethnicity. It is a war against citizens of the United States and those of other nations. It’s a war without borders. It has gone through multiple mutations and over the last few decades grown into the monstrosity that it is today. It is a one sided war declared by nations on their citizens. A conflict not yet reciprocated by the citizens. It is a war that is sustained entirely due to ignorance, fear, and greed.
If there is such a thing as a just war, then the war on drugs belongs at the other end of the spectrum. It is a war exclusively waged for money. Every other war throughout history has had at least one other fathomable pretense. The war on drugs doesn’t. (Please note that the first few minutes of the following documentary are in Dutch, but the rest is in English).
The irony is that this war and the destruction that it unleashes can be brought to an end within an instant, if it was so desired. All that is required is to end prohibition, to repeal one law.
We know that the end to prohibition will have positive effects because precedent for this has already been set. When prohibition of alcohol ended, so did most of the violence associated with gang warfare, as did much of the corruption in government. When prohibition ended, precious resources were made available again and a major source of revenue and employment was established.
These same findings have also been observed in Portugal’s experiment with drug decriminalization.
Video - Policy Forum, Full Report by Glenn Greenwald
The United Nations has also confirmed these findings in its annual report on the state of global drug policy, and many countries have been paying-heed. Drug liberalization is sweeping through major parts of Europe, Latin America, as well as numerous municipalities and States within the United States of America.
click to enlarge - Source: ”Legality of cannabis” from Wikipedia
The only reason that America’s Federal War on Drugs continues to this day is because its so-called adversaries, criminal organizations, as well as certain corporations and sectors of government don’t want it to end since its continuation guarantees them flow of funds.
All of the above is common knowledge to anyone who has remotely researched this topic, or for that matter, even thought about it.
On the behest of certain corporations and a small minority that profit from prohibition, we have been waging a war on a plant that has the potential to help us reduce our ecological footprint. We have been waging a multi-decade war on cannabis that spans the globe, costs trillions of dollars, destroys millions of lives, and consumes precious resources. Stupid.
SOURCE: http://chycho.blogspot.ca/2012/08/how-to-end-prohibition-supporting.htmlSOURCE: http://chycho.blogspot.ca/2012/08/how-to-end-prohibition-supporting.html... more
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Brad Pitt has thrown his weight behind a documentary that blasts America's 40-year war on drugs as a failure, calling policies that imprison huge numbers of drug-users a "charade" in urgent need of a rethink.
The Hollywood actor came aboard recently as an executive producer of filmmaker Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In, which won the Grand Jury Prize in January at the Sundance Film Festival. The film opened in wide release in the United States on Friday.
Ahead of a Los Angeles screening, Pitt and Jarecki spoke passionately about the "War on Drugs," which, according to the documentary, has cost more than $1 trillion and accounted for over 45 million arrests since 1971, and which preys largely on poor and minority communities.
"I know people are suffering because of it. I know I've lived a very privileged life in comparison and I can't stand for it," Pitt told Reuters, calling the government's War on Drugs policy a "charade."
"It's such bad strategy. It makes no sense. It perpetuates itself. You make a bust, you drive up profit, which makes more people want to get into it," he added. "To me, there's no question; we have to rethink this policy and we have to rethink it now."LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Brad Pitt has thrown his weight behind a documentary that... more
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Police Drug Lab Scientist Arrested For Purposely Producing False Positives On Drug Tests! (Over 1,000 People Sent To Jail Because Of Her)Police Drug Lab Scientist Arrested For Purposely Producing False Positives On Drug... more
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On May 5 at around 9:30 a.m., several teams of Pima County, Ariz., police officers from at least four different police agencies armed with SWAT gear and an armored personnel carrier raided at least four homes as part of what at the time was described as an investigation into alleged marijuana trafficking. One of those homes belonged to 26-year-old Jose Guerena and his wife, Vanessa Guerena. The couple's 4-year-old son was also in the house at the time. Their 6-year-old son was at school.
As the SWAT team forced its way into his home, Guerena, a former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, armed himself with his AR-15 rifle and told his wife and son to hide in a closet. As the officers entered, Guerena confronted them from the far end of a long, dark hallway. The police opened fire, releasing more than 70 rounds in about 7 seconds, at least 60 of which struck Guerena. He was pronounced dead a little over an hour later.On May 5 at around 9:30 a.m., several teams of Pima County, Ariz., police officers... more
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This very disturbing!
WASHINGTON – At a time when states are struggling to reduce bloated prison populations and tight budgets, a private prison management company is offering to buy prisons in exchange for various considerations, including a controversial guarantee that the governments maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years.
By M. Spencer Green, AP
Federal Bureau of Prisons director Harley Lappin speaks during a news conference at the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., in 2009.
The $250 million proposal, circulated by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America to prison officials in 48 states, has been blasted by some state officials who suggest such a program could pressure criminal justice officials to seek harsher sentences to maintain the contractually required occupancy rates.
"You don't want a prison system operating with the goal of maximizing profits," says Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and advocate for reducing prison populations through less costly diversion programs. "The only thing worse is that this seeks to take advantage of some states' troubled financial position."
STORY: Proposal to buy prisons raises ethical concerns
Corrections Corporation spokesman Steve Owen defended the company's "investment initiative," describing it as "an additional option" for cash-strapped states to consider.
The proposal seeks to build upon a deal reached last fall in which the company purchased the 1,798-bed Lake Erie Correctional Institution from the state of Ohio for $72.7 million. Ohio officials lauded the September transaction, saying that private management of the facility would save a projected $3 million annually.
Linda Janes, chief of staff for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the purchase came at time when the state was facing a $8 billion shortfall. The $72.7 million prison purchase was aimed at helping to fill a $188 million deficit within the corrections agency.
Ohio's deal requires the state to maintain a 90% occupancy rate, but Janes said that provision remains in effect for 18 months — not 20 years — before it can be renegotiated. As part of the deal, Ohio pays the company a monthly fee, totaling $3.8 million per year.
Roger Werholtz, former Kansas secretary of corrections, said states may be tempted by the "quick infusion of cash," but he would recommend against such a deal.
"My concern would be that our state would be obligated to maintain these (occupancy) rates and subtle pressure would be applied to make sentencing laws more severe with a clear intent to drive up the population," Werholtz said.This very disturbing!
WASHINGTON – At a time when states are struggling to... more
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In the latest attempt to regulate what many say is an out-of-control proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, the City Counted voted 14-0 Tuesday to ban pot shops.
Under the ban, each of the 762 dispensaries that have registered with the city will be sent a letter ordering them to shut down immediately. Those that don’t comply may face legal action from the city.
Medical marijuana activists who had packed the council chambers jeered when the vote came down. More than a dozen Los Angeles Police Department officers were called in to quell them.
Under the ban, medical patients and their caregivers will be able to grow and share the drug in small groups of three people or less.
But the activists say most patients don’t have the time or skills to cultivate marijuana. One dispensary owner told the council that it would cost patients a minimum of $5,000 to grow marijuana at home.
In a seemingly contradictory move, the council also voted to instruct city staff to draw up an ordinance that would allow a group of about 170 dispensaries that registered with the city several years ago to remain open.
Councilman Jose Huizar, who voted against that motion, said it might give the public “false hope” that the ban wound not be enforced.
He said the ban would be enforced, especially against problem dispensaries that have drawn complaints from neighbors. “Relief is on its way,” he said.
But he acknowledged that the city may not have the resources to shut down every dispensary in the city.
Councilman Paul Koretz, who initially voted against the ban, and who supported the motion to allow the oldest dispensaries to stay open, said he hoped the city would come up with a more compassionate law in the future. “We have shut off almost every way that a normal person can get access to marijuana,” he said. “It will be a ban until otherwise noted,” he said.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/la-council-votes-on-pot-shops.htmlIn the latest attempt to regulate what many say is an out-of-control proliferation of... more
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Oregon voters will have a chance to make marijuana legal. The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, also known as Initiative 9, will appear as Measure 80 on the Oregon ballot in November.
The official Twitter feed of the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division was used to make the announcement late Friday afternoon, tweeting:
Initiative Petition # 9 relating to marijuana has qualified for the Nov. ballot.
If passed, Measure 80 would legalize hemp and regulate marijuana (cannabis) for adult use. The measure would also license cannabis for commercial sale, and allow Oregon farmers to grow hemp for biofuel, food, sustainable fiber and medicine.
According to a press release issued on July 13, Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, would regulate cannabis (marijuana) for adults 21 years of age and older, with commercial sales only through state-licensed stores. Ninety percent of tax revenue, estimated at more than $140 million annually, would go to the state’s battered general fund. Seven percent of tax proceeds would go toward funding drug treatment programs, and much of the remaining revenue would be directed toward kickstarting and promoting Oregon’s hemp food, fiber and bio-fuel industries.
http://www.examiner.com/article/marijuana-makes-the-ballot-oregonOregon voters will have a chance to make marijuana legal. The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act,... more
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LOS ANGELES: US and Mexican authorities have unearthed a 240-yard-long drug smuggling tunnel under their joint border in the state of Arizona, the latest such find in the violence-scarred region, US officials said on Thursday.
The “sophisticated” six-feet high by two-feet wide (1.8-metre by 0.6-metre) tunnel, equipped with lighting and ventilation and located 55 feet underground, was discovered on Saturday when officers raided a business in the Arizona town of San Luis, which concealed the US entrance.
Three people were arrested, according to a statement about the US operation by federal and local law enforcement bodies.
The US raid was coordinated with the Mexican military, which entered an ice-making plant in the Mexican border town of San Luis Rio Colorado, the US statement said.
The tunnel’s US entrance was located in a storage room hidden beneath a large water tank, in a one-story “nondescript” building. US authorities had been monitoring the business since January due to “suspicious activity.” The discovery “is yet another reminder of how desperate these criminal organizations are and the extent they will go to further their drug dealing operations,” said Doug Coleman of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
“The DEA continues to work with our counterparts nationally and internationally to bring to justice these drug trafficking organizations as well as to block their smuggling routes into this country,” he said.
Separately, to the far west of the border, the Mexican army found a tunnel that was being built in Tijuana in a warehouse some 300 meters away from the border.
“A tunnel under construction was found by a patrol while on an observation mission,” General Gilberto Landeros, commander of the II Military Zone, told AFP.
The soldiers were suspicious when they saw a person running out of the area.
The Tijuana tunnel was 10 meters deep and about 150 meters long.
Last November two major drug smuggling tunnels were found near the Mexican border with California in Tijuana, one of them 400 yards long and the other 600 yards in length.
Over the past decade at least 86 tunnels have been discovered in Arizona, and 50 in California, officials said.
Some 45,000 people have been killed since 2006, when Mexico launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorised border communities as they have battled over lucrative smuggling routes. -- AFPLOS ANGELES: US and Mexican authorities have unearthed a 240-yard-long drug smuggling... more
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C'mon Barry O, enough of the same old same old. Full article at link
WASHINGTON, DC -- A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who have waged the so-called "war on drugs" is criticizing President Obama because his federal drug control budget, released today, does not match up to his rhetoric on treating drug abuse as a health problem.
Despite the White House drug czar's office saying the administration is shepherding a "revolutionary shift" to address drug policy through a "public health approach," Obama's federal drug control budget maintains a Bush-era disparity devoting roughly 60 percent of the budget to punishment-oriented approaches and roughly 40 percent for treatment and prevention.
Since taking office, President Obama has repeatedly said things like, “We have to think more about drugs as a public health problem," which requires "shifting resources."C'mon Barry O, enough of the same old same old. Full article at link... more
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...not until the 16th paragraph in the AP story do we learn that “International crackdowns in Mexico and the Caribbean have pushed drug trafficking to Central America, which is now the crossing point for 84 percent of all U.S-bound cocaine.”... The disconnect between what is happening in states and cities across America and what the federal government is doing in our name in places like Honduras is stark. Sure, the expansive U.S. national-security complex is benefiting from the continuing mission, but who else is, aside from the bad guys? http://www.theamericanconservative.com/team-america-and-the-failing-drug-war/...not until the 16th paragraph in the AP story do we learn that “International... more
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In this scene from Vanguard's "Narco War Next Door," correspondent Laura Ling revisits some of the many murder scenes in Juarez, Mexico, where in 2008 there were almost 1400 drug-related killings.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Mondays at 9/8c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.In this scene from Vanguard's "Narco War Next Door," correspondent... more
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In this scene from Vanguard's "Narco War Next Door," correspondent Laura Ling investigates a wave of kidnapping in Mexican border towns like Juarez, where drug cartels have even held Americans for ransom.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Mondays at 9/8c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.In this scene from Vanguard's "Narco War Next Door," correspondent... more
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Nationalisation: Uruguay's solution to its drug problem
Law allowing state to sell cannabis could be adopted across Latin America in defiance of US
Simeon Tegel
Friday, 22 June 2012
Uruguay – in a bid to curb a narcotics-fuelled violent crimewave across the country – has unveiled plans to nationalise its cannabis market and become the first government in the world to sell the soft drug to consumers.
The measure is aimed at both reducing the rising power of drug gangs and the growing number of users of crack and freebase cocaine in what has traditionally been one of Latin America's most peaceful nations.
"We want to fight two different things: one is the consumption of drugs and the other is the trafficking of drugs," said the Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro.
"We believe that the prohibition of certain drugs is creating more problems in society than the drug itself. Homicides have risen as a result of the settling of accounts [between rival drug gangs] and this is a clear symptom of the appearance of certain phenomena that did not exist previously in Uruguay." Under the plans, the government would initially grow cannabis and sell it to registered users. But once the scheme is up and running, it hopes to cash in and allow private companies to take over the production of the drug.
Possession of small amounts and consumption of marijuana is currently not illegal in Uruguay but growing and selling it is. The new bill would seek to put the drug dealers out of business by making it easier, safer and possibly cheaper for users to buy marijuana from official dispensaries.
President José Mujica, a former leftwing guerrilla, has now sent a bill to the Uruguayan congress which is widely expected to approve it. The legislation is part of a larger packet of measures to tackle law and order issues.
Last night, even opposition lawmakers were tweeting in qualified support. One, Luis Lacalle Pau, of the centre-right National Party, wrote: "I don't believe it would be a good thing to continue associating marijuana with money." The measure represents a rejection of the "stepping stone" argument that cannabis is a gateway drug to more damaging substances. Mr Fernández Huidobro highlighted the government's expectation that it would actually result in a fall in the use of harder drugs.
It also marks the latest chapter in the region's gathering rebellion against Washington's "war on drugs", launched in the 1970s by President Nixon. Many Latin Americans resent being blamed for producing coca – cocaine's key raw ingredient – when impoverished peasant farmers are largely responding to demand from the US and Europe.
The costs of prohibition to the region have been huge, with Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in particular, seeing tens of thousands die as the drug cartels confront law enforcement and battle each other for control of the main cocaine corridor from the Andes into the US market.
"An erroneous decision by Nixon has been what has caused all these disasters, declaring a war that has been won by the narco-traffickers," Mr Fernández Huidobro told the Montevideo newspaper El País.
In the last 12 months, the Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, has called for "market" alternatives to prohibition to be considered while Colombia's President, Juan Manuel Santos, has said he would welcome an international debate about legalisation.
Worryingly for Washington, both presidents come from the right of the political spectrum and have been staunch supporters of the war on drugs.
Uruguay is thought to have around 150,000 regular consumers of cannabis, roughly 5 per cent of the population, representing an annual market worth around £50m.Nationalisation: Uruguay's solution to its drug problem
Law allowing state to... more
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A recent appearance by top US bureaucrat Michele Leonhart is making a stir throughout the blogosphere because of its incompetence and evasiveness. But perhaps there is a bigger story. In fact, one might argue Leonhart’s appearance signals a turning point in the “war on drugs” … much the way an appearance in 2009 by the Federal Reserve’s Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman helped puncture Fed credibility. http://americanfreed.com/?p=768A recent appearance by top US bureaucrat Michele Leonhart is making a stir throughout... more
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Last night I was talking with a guy I’ve known for over 10 years. He’s only 4 years older than I am and has been fighting cancer for about 5 years nowLast night I was talking with a guy I’ve known for over 10 years. He’s... more
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