crossposted to awesomeness
I guess we're gonna have to blame the gay, pot-smoking Guatamalens for this one.
Cannabis was already decriminalized for personal use. Seeing as how the sky did not fall on the country, the Uruguay govt decided that some more common-sense wouldn't hurt, and legalized home cultivation of cannabis plants. [The next step will be setting up a regulated commercial market.]
There are not any English-language articles out yet on this breaking story, but I'll update with them as soon as they come in.
In the meantime, there is the 'translate' button.
http://kannabia.org/...
http://www.elargentino.com/...
Here is an article I found from a couple months ago. The slogan of the pro-cannabis protesters is very similar to the premise of my recent diary --Obama, Rep Weiner: Fear Ye Not the Plants
On Thursday, demonstrators at the Supreme Court in Montevideo protested the criminalization of marijuana possession. Under the slogan, “No más presos por plantar" (No more prisoners for plants) supporters of the Movement for the Liberation of Cannabis protested the arrest of an Uruguayan artisan and of Alicia Castilla, the Argentine author of Cultura cannabis. Both were arrested for being in possession of marijuana in their residencies.
A memorandum addressed to the Supreme Court by the movement’s supporters argued that the ambiguity of Law 14.294, which punishes narco-traffic and prohibits the cultivation of cannabis but exempts those that hold a “reasonable amount exclusively for personal consumption” is the term in question as to who decides the amount and the reason for possession.
In late 2010 Congressman Luis Alberto Aparicio Alejando Lacalle Pou submitted a bill to Parliament to decriminalize the cultivation and harvesting of marijuana for personal consumption. “My generation lived and lives with drugs, unlike our parents or grandparents, so it isn’t a taboo subject,” Pou told AFP. He added that "Uruguay’s narcotics law is completely contradictory.”
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update:
Yesterday, the Feds went after voter-approved medical marijuana suppliers in Washington.
update x2: over decade ago, Uruguay's President was 1st ever to call for end to drug war.
He also urged the assembled heads of state to "stop playing games, take a deep look and start seriously confronting the drug problem. But even if I'm wrong, why is there such a fear of asking ourselves this question?"
Ten days later in Mexico City, Batlle went even farther. According to El Observador, he pointed at the root of the problem. "The day that it is legalized in the United States, it will lose value, and if it loses value, there will be no profit. But as long as the US citizenry doesn't rise up to do something, they will pass this life fighting and fighting."
Again, Batlle's position appeared driven by concern about Plan Colombia. "You have to think about the origin of the thing," he argued. "Basically, where is this consumed? A minimum of 50 percent is consumed in the United States. It seems fine with me that my friend Pastrana (the Colombian president) tries to improve education, health and roads... but this doesn't resolve the problem."
He also compared today's drug wars to alcohol Prohibition, and predicted that the current stalemate will end "on the day that the consumers announce that this cannot be fixed by any other manner than changing this situation in the same way that was done with the 'Dry Laws.'"
And, Batlle told El Observador, he had personally pitched the idea of legalization to President Clinton. Batlle did not report on Clinton's response.
The 72-year-old Batlle won the presidency this year as head of the conservative Colorado Party, which defeated a coalition of centrist and left parties.
Not only was this progressive change bi-partisan, but the conservative party's proposal would have allowed unlimited number of plants grown, as opposed to just 8.
One proposal, supported by the ruling, asking decriminalize marijuana and 25 grams particular crop enable up to eight marijuana plants. Another proposal, the conservative National Party, wants to legalize the cultivation without limits and increases penalties up to 30 years imprisonment for trafficking any illegal substances.
The proposal prepared by the MPP, the Socialist Party and the New Area, which also has the support of Colorado Congressman Daniel Fernando Amado and Radio, Independent Party, is considered "a good first step" for the pro-legalization groups of marijuana, but not satisfying finish.
"It's an important first step. We agree that there is a need to solve a legal vacuum. But we also believe that the issue can not be exhausted here," said Martin Collins Uruguayan half of Prolegal, an organization working for change in legislation on drugs in Uruguay. Collazo added that "any person who does not want to plant at home is entitled to purchase in the legal market, as buying alcohol or snuff today." In that sense, he said, "must work towards the legalization of the production and marketing" of marijuana.
Despite minor differences in the projects of organizations, any objections will not be manifested against it because "there are a lot of people plant in their homes today, and runs the risk of being punished for that ... what in ultimately want is to solve this type of situation, "said Collazo.
[translated, any spanish speakers here could no doubt do better. My spanish is awful]
From other link:
The Frente Amplio (FA) agreed a draft law to regulate marijuana use. The new text is set between the Popular Movement for participation (MPP), the Socialist Party and the New Space (NE).
The initiative, to be approved Tuesday 26 April by the Deputies thwart FA, allows the tree plantation, cultivation and harvesting as well as the industrialization and trade up to eight cannabis plants per household.
Notwithstanding this, “be understood as quantity for personal consumption, to 25 grams of marijuana”, is set according to the Article 3 the bill that accedi The Pas.
So, it seems as if the government will be tasked with providing cannabis seeds to citizens who wish to grow at home. This is very similar to what Prop 19 would have done in California, save for the supplying of seeds.
Only Democrats in very, very conservative districts should be capitulating on the cannabis issue. The Democratic Governor in Montana isn't backing down right now to teabaggers who want to repeal MMJ laws. There's a Democrat in Maine right now who just introduced a bill to re-legalize cannabis. Democrats won every single stateside office in 2010 with Prop 19 on the ballot.
The only thing crazier or stupider than outlawing cannabis sativa for recreational use was outlawing industrial hemp for the myriad of uses that it provides.
Uruguay has also taken steps to remove that useless law.
Uruguay’s National Institute for Farming Technology will grow the test crop at a secret location in October. The country’s officials want to know how hemp varieties respond to Uruguay’s soil and the crop’s productive capacities. If the trial run is successful, the Uruguayan government might grant special growing permits to producers, which would make the country the first in South America to authorize hemp cultivation.
Hemp, a fast-growing, versatile crop that requires few to no herbicides to produce, is a superlative fiber for home textiles. If the trial is successful and leads to further hemp cultivation, it could mean a significant environmental change for Uruguay’s agriculture. Uruguay, along with Argentina, is a major producer of soy, which requires lots of fertilizers and herbicides to grow.
Although several U.S. states have passed pro-hemp legislation, it is still illegal to grow hemp here.
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/...
Latest pieces:
CBS: Mexico may sue US gunmakers; US Fed Agencies Let Guns Go to Cartels (expanded x1)
The racism that drives the Drug War in America also is the culprit for the shocking indifference to this violence in Mexico.
Reuters: Analysis: Drugs war ignites Mexican fury at U.S. indifference
U.S. attempts to set traps for arms traffickers and money launderers have backfired and Washington has treated Mexico like a "laboratory" for experiments in law-enforcement strategies, former foreign minister Rosario Green wrote in a newspaper column recently.
U.S. officials counter such broadsides by saying Mexico has failed to address rampant corruption in the police and the judiciary, hampering efforts to improve on intelligence sharing.
The fight against the cartels will be under the spotlight again when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets her Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa in Washington on Friday.
THIRD FRONT
Tensions over the conflict, which has claimed over 37,000 lives in Mexico in the past four years, boiled over last month when U.S. ambassador Carlos Pascual said he would step down after weeks of pressure from the Mexican government.
"That a Mexican president can pick off the U.S. ambassador is something new." said Jonathan Fox, a political scientist and Mexico expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "That does suggest the U.S. needed to throw Calderon a bone."
Mindful of its sovereignty, Mexico has resisted U.S. intervention on its turf, but Calderon insists Washington is not trying hard enough to fight demand for narcotics at home.
White House data shows U.S. federal spending on narcotics control dipped slightly last year to just over $15 billion, even as drug war deaths surged to a record high in Mexico. Texas Republican congressman Ted Poe refers to Mexico as the United States' "third front" after Afghanistan and Iraq.
If these guys want to have a war over drugs, the least we can do is get black-market marijuana $$ out of the picture.
I heard a troll once say "the United states of amsterdam". Sounds like a good idea to me--- http://www.dailykos.com/...
Some of the latest cannabis news.