While Uruguayans marched for marijuana in Montevideo two days earlier, the South American country's new pot policy went to effect on May 5. Residents will soon be able to purchase untaxed government-grown weed at the low, low price of $1 a gram or just grow their own.
“The principal objective is not tax collection," says Felix Abadi, a contractor who's involved with the program. "Everything has to be geared toward undercutting the black market. So we have to make sure the price is low.”
There will be three ways to acquire marijuana: at registered pharmacies (10 grams per week max), growing in or outside your own home (six plants max) or as part of a cannabis cultivation club (99 plants per group max). Residents must register with the government and choose one of three methods of access. They will be able to possess 40 grams a month (or a total of 17 ounces over a year's time). All sales will be tracked.
The low-priced government buds cannot exceed 15% THC and will be limited to five strains.
Pres. Jose Mujica made headlines this week when he told the Associated Press, "We aren't going to promote smokefests, bohemianism, all this stuff they try to pass off as innocuous when it isn't. They'll label us elderly reactionaries. But this isn't a policy that seeks to expand marijuana consumption. What it aims to do is keep it all within reason, and not allow it to become an illness. No addiction is good."
He also criticized Colorado: "It's a complete fiction what they do in Colorado. There are places where there are forms already filled out with a doctor's signature. So you go, you say that you need marijuana because your ear hurts, they fill out the form, you prescribe it yourself and with the signature of a doctor."
Mujica arrives in Washington on May 12 for a meeting with Pres. Obama. It will be interesting to learn how it goes when their conversation turns to cannabis.
