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Uruguay Legislators Approve Bill to Legalize Marijuana


Legislators in the lower house of Uruguay voted to approve a bill to legalize marijuana, The New York Times reports. The country’s Senate is expected to approve the bill as well. President José Mujica supports the measure. If the bill becomes law, Uruguay would become the first Latin American country to legalize marijuana, according to the Los Angeles Times.

President Mujica has said the bill is needed to free up police to fight street crime and criminals who smuggle other types of drugs.

Polls have shown a majority of people in Uruguay oppose marijuana legalization, the article notes. Nonprofit groups in the country promoted legalization through a campaign to explain the medicinal uses of the drug and the economic benefits of cultivating marijuana.

The bill would allow people to grow up to six marijuana plants in their homes. They could form cooperatives that would be allowed to cultivate 99 plants. Private companies would be allowed to grow marijuana, but their harvests could be bought only by the government. Marijuana would be sold in licensed pharmacies.

Uruguayans who purchased marijuana would be entered into a confidential federal registry. They would be allowed to purchase 40 grams monthly. Only citizens of the country could buy marijuana.

“This vote is destined to have a big impact, with regional and even global repercussions for drug policy,” said John Walsh, an analyst at the humans rights group Washington Office on Latin America. “Uruguay’s timing is right. Because of last year’s Colorado and Washington state votes to legalize, the U.S. government is in no position to browbeat Uruguay or others who may follow.”

Last month, Pope Francis spoke out against legalizing drugs in Latin America.

1 Response to this article

  1. Avatar of Tommy
    Tommy / December 4, 2013 at 2:05 am

    marijuana doesnt fry your brain.

    Marijuana does not kill brain cells nor does it make them go ‘dormant’. Using marijuana can cause temporary impairments in short-term memory and what’s called ‘executive brain functions’, the ability to learn new information or engage in complex manipulation of learned material. These effects disappear as the drug effects wear off.

    To the person that said that it gives you LUNG cancer,
    well sweetie that’s with any SMOKE that you INHALE.
    You can always get a vaporizer, FFS. >.>

    Never saw a video on that, but i am sure they are just researching.
    If there’s definitive proof, i’d love to hear it!

    smoking is bad in general.
    marijuana vaporizers can save you from harmful carcinogens entering your lungs.

    Benefits of marijuana vaporizers:
    • No smoke! Is the number one benefit of using a vaporizer. Smoke is the prime cause of lung cancer and many respiratory disorders.
    • Because your lungs will thank you. When smoking marijuana, you really want to smoke 2 ingredients, THC and CBN. Although you end up smoking the plant too, which contains harmful carcinogens. Vaporizers are great because they simply heat up the herb until pure THC and CBN’s are released, NOT burning the plant. This makes vaporizers a smart, and healthy method of using marijuana.

    Its well known that marijuana smoke contains hazardous toxins which aren’t great for your respiratory system. Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons are highly carcinogenic, and believed to be a leading factor in cigarette related cancers.
    California NORML and MAPS recently conducted a laboratory study and found that vaporizers are truly able to drastically reduce or eliminate harmful smoke toxins, while still delivering cannabinoids.

    As far as Negative things about it..
    The only negative things i have experienced with it (which vary from individual, keep that in mind)
    are having an INSATIABLE appetite and short-term memory loss. I don’t smoke weed as often as i used to, I always had a bad memory, but i think Marijuana just made it worse tbh with you. This doesn’t mean that this happens with every person that smokes it regularly.

    The positives can be of what you make of it.
    What would you use it for? To have fun? To get messed up?
    Not everyone that uses marijuana does it for those purposes.
    Some people use it to get closer to God, or to be more spiritual.
    I’m not sure which way i preferred it.
    It’s fun to be messed up, have a good time and laugh your *** off with your friends.
    But i also had a great time getting more ‘in tune’ with nature, more connected with the Earth.
    Those were moments of sheer bliss.

    It seems that some people do experience a ‘turning point’ in their marijuana use when it ceases to become enjoyable and instead provokes paranoia, fear or other ‘bad trip’ type symptoms.

    In a recent study, between 10%-15% of people who smoked marijuana reported “paranoid” or “confused” feelings as a disadvantage of smoking marijuana. Furthermore, around 30% gave “negative experiences” as their reason for permanently quitting cannabis.

    The character of many drugs’ effects and reactions are dependent on ‘set and setting’, your mindset (how you feel at the time, what’s going on in your life, your prevailing mood, the kind of day you’ve had) and your environment (where are you? are you relaxed there? who’s with you? are you comfortable with everyone?).

    Maybe examining the when, where, what, and how you smoke will help.
    Is there anything consistent in your panic reactions? Time of day? Place where you’re smoking?

    What time of day did you smoke? Evenings are generally best as the body and the mind is more relaxed. Have you eaten before? Generally, an empty stomach will make drug effects stronger. A full stomach tends to ground you and lessen the possible unsettling out-of-body spacey side-effects of cannabis.

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