Uruguan officials could pass a marijuana legalization bill soon as the country’s lower house is set to debate the merits of making pot legal.
The bill, unveiled in June 2012, will go to the Senate if the house approves it.
“The regulation is not meant to promote consumption, consumption already exists,” lawmaker Sebastian Sabini, who helped draft the legislation, said at the beginning of the session, according to AFP.
President Jose Mujica’s administration supports the move.
The pending bill got lots of coverage after U.S.-based NORML, an organization that pushes for drug reform, posted on its blog about the possibility of Uruguay becoming “the first country to legalize marijuana.”
“As soon as tomorrow afternoon votes are expected in the Uruguayan House of Representatives which will cast the country into the lead to become the first country to official end cannabis prohibition,” wrote the organization’s executive director, Allen St. Pierre. “The country’s president, José Mujica, and the ruling party in the Uruguayan Senate, Frente Ampli, are also public supporters of replacing cannabis prohibition with a state monopoly on cannabis commerce.”
Under the bill, users would be able to cultivate up to six plants, get marijuana as part of a marijuana-growing club, or buy up to 40 grams every month at a dispensary.
Not all lawmakers are in favor.
Gerardo Amarilla of the opposition National Party said marijuana has negative effects on health and said the project was “playing with fire.”
“We will not end the black market,” the lawmaker said.
A survey last week showed 63 percent of people in the country against the government’s plan.
Possession of marijuana is currently legal for personal use but judges have lots of say over what is appropriate for personal use.
Many people in the country are against the change because foreign tourists will come into the country to use marijuana, according to AFP.
Defense Minister Fernandez Huidobro, who introduced the bill last year, said that ““the prohibition of certain drugs is creating more problems for society than the drugs themselves... with disastrous consequences,” according to BBC.
Legalization is a big issue both in the Americas and worldwide. Mexico, among other countries, has called for legalizing it, amidst a bitter global war on drugs.
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