Uruguay leader calls Colorado pot law 'a fiction'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Uruguay leader calls Colorado pot law 'a fiction'
By LEONARDO HABERKORN
Associated Press May 2, 2014 Updated 6 minutes ago

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — President Jose Mujica says Uruguay's legal marijuana market will be much better than the system in Colorado, which doesn't track the drug after sale. And he says the medical marijuana laws many U.S. states have adopted are based on "hypocrisy" because they enable people to fake illnesses to get prescription weed.

Mujica also predicted Friday that Uruguay's system will be much tougher on drug users, and more effective in combatting illegal drug trafficking.

Mujica, who will visit President Barack Obama in the White House on May 12, says his government will license and regulate the entire marijuana business, enforcing pot possession rules as well as limits on production and sales so that violators get punished and addicts get help.

In an exclusive Associated Press interview just hours before the release of Uruguay's long-awaited marijuana regulations, the former leftist guerrilla also predicted that many will call him an old reactionary once they see the fine print.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2014/05/02/4161264/uruguay-leader-calls-colorado.html#storylink=cpy

[Judi Lynn]

1. Think Uruguay’s president is fascinating? Meet his wife

Will Carless March 30, 2014 04:18Updated March 31, 2014 12:30
Think Uruguay’s president is fascinating? Meet his wife



Lucia Topolansky: Senator, ex-guerrilla, prison escapee, torture survivor, blonde-bombshell-turned-wild-haired, farm-living, hard-as-nails first lady.


MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — By most accounts, Uruguay’s President Jose “Pepe” Mujica is pretty badass.

He survived 14 years in prison, fought as a revolutionary, gives away most of his salary, drives a crumbling VW bug and shows up to official meetings in his sandals.

Hell, he even signed a law making Uruguay the first country on the planet that will grow, harvest, sell and tax marijuana.

But you know who’s just as much of a badass, if not more?

His wife.

Lucia Topolansky: Senator, ex-guerrilla, prison escapee, torture survivor, blonde-bombshell-turned-wild-haired, farm-living, hard-as-nails first lady.

A lot of Uruguayans, especially conservatives, don’t like the first lady very much. In the swankier suburbs of Montevideo, residents often turn up their noses at the mention of the former rebel's name. She’s dangerous, they say. An assassin. A liar, and a thief.

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/world-leaders/140329/think-uruguay-s-president-fascinating-meet-his-wife-0

[center]

Lucia Topolansky[/center]

[joshcryer]

2. It will probably be cheaper.

But I fail to see how tracking makes it better.

[billhicks76]

3. I Now Think That President Isn't a That Smart

It's a harmless herb. Are there limits on beer? Booze? The hypocrisy stinks.

[joshcryer]

4. He has the right idea about tracking for abuse.

But I think he's inflating the harm of marijuana. It's no worse than alcohol as a vice.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. So should we also track each beer? Because alcoholics drink and then kill others with cars

So what do you suggest, how do you track each booze user and beer drinker, some of whom overdose and some of whom provide that drink to underage kids. How can you let this go on? Do you hate kids that much, or crave your dipso sauce that much?

[olddad56]

13. how about we track nicotine addicts.

much bigger health risk and burden on our health system than pot.

[Lenomsky]

16. Doubtful ..

Last edited Tue May 6, 2014, 05:01 AM - Edit history (1)

The very high Tax and Duty paid on Cigarettes etc combined with the higher death rate amongst smokers/users more than compensates in the long term.

I personally think smoking MJ should be DISCOURAGED and edibles promoted as the safest and preferred method of administration.

[joshcryer]

18. I did not say that.

They do not track alcohol in Uruguay, do they?

I think the idea is right that you need to have a safety net for harder drugs.

[Recursion]

5. "addicts"?

Because there are a ton of pot addicts, terrorizing innocent people so they can get their fix?

[nikto]

6. It's the easiest thing in the world to beat up on cannabis

The people who use such rhetoric are duplicitous scumbaggers, all.


Just legalize it, already.

[Mrdrboi]

7. Why do people get the idea Pot is worse than Booze?

Pot isnt known for tearing familys apart from addiction like booze is. Has anyone OD on pot for smoking it too much?

Booze and its effects has/will kill more people this year than pot. Pot has been growing on this planet for a very very long time it has a purpose. It has real legit medical effects booze cannot make the same claim.

[jmowreader]

24. Booze has a few real legit medical effects

They're finding that moderate consumption of red wine reduces the incidence of heart disease.

And hard liquor is the classical first aid for ethylene glycol ingestion...if someone swallows this shit, every glycol manufacturer on the planet wants you to immediately feed the victim four shots of whiskey. Then you keep the victim warm and drunk for the next three to five days. What happens is, the liver metabolizes both glycol and ethanol...they're both alcohols, right? Unfortunately, glycol metabolite will take out your kidneys. Fortunately for you, the liver can only process one kind of alcohol at a time and it prefers to work on lower alcohols like ethanol. SO...if you stay shitfaced until you've pissed out all the glycol, you'll survive.

[dballance]

8. He's just bloviating to puff himself up before meeting w/ Obama

Seriously, we're happily starting to see cracks in the armor of the anti-cannibis crowd. When the US State Department can make this statement and it no longer makes front-page headlines we're making progress:

State Department official Roberta Jacobsen said Wednesday that there's an "honest debate" on the issue, and that Obama should get more credit for budgeting more than $10 billion a year on drug prevention and treatment. "You can't arrest your way out of this problem," she said.

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2014/05/02/4161264/uruguay-leader-calls-colorado.html#storylink=cpy

[Judi Lynn]

9. There's a thought! He is a feistly little guy, for sure. n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

10. This fascist sounds like Nixon. Tracking the medicine? Tracking? Addicts? He thinks cannabis is

an addictive substance? He's super authoritarian and also, of course, a liar. Colorado's law is far superior to his own police state like paranoid crap, and he calls the Colorado law 'a fiction'?
He might as well put on the jack boots now, he's disgusting.

[Peace Patriot]

14. Mujica is not a fascist.

The article is short on facts and doesn't use quotes. Typical Associated Pukes. So we don't know what he said. And, believe me, the Associated Pukes are fully capable of screwing LatAm leftists with these and other corporate 'news' tactics. They did it to Hugo Chavez all the time. They are scumbags.

It's wise to wait for other sources on LatAm leftist leaders' statements. There are a lot of corporate reasons for hating Mujica and his government-run marijuana system, not the least of which is that it cuts out Monsanto & brethren. So I would wait on all aspects of this subject--from the details of the new law to what he might have said to the Associated Pukes. For instance, we DON'T KNOW if he said "addicts." It is not in quotes. NONE of his statements are in quotes!

Mujica seems to be quite a remarkable leader. He and his wife grow flowers for a living, have accumulated no wealth, and own almost nothing. They are very thoughtful, very well-informed, very progressive people. Mujica is simply not a "super authoritarian" or fascist. Indeed, he is the last leader on earth that I would use those words to describe.

If there is any truth at all to the gist of this impressionistic Associated Pukes knifing of Mujica--that is, if the new law has a tracking system and that is what he was talking about--it is likely that, a) he's trying to get the law passed (or its regs accepted) against corpo-fascist opposition (by emphasizing this aspect of it), and/or, b) he's trying to anticipate corporate 'news' knifings before his meeting with the head of the Big Corporate State. (The behind-the-scenes battle at that meeting will include not only extremely intense lobbying by Monsanto et al, and by "war on drugs" boondogglers, but will also include the peace negotiations in Cuba between the Colombian government and leftist guerrilla groups, i.e., ending that 70 year civil war--a war that the U.S. has used to militarize and brutalize Colombia as prep for U.S. "free trade for the rich." Mujica was called in, as an outside negotiator, to help with those talks.)

Beware, beware of the Associated Pukes and their shilling for corporate and military interests! They are without scruples when it comes to the most popular and strongest anti-U.S. corporate/military leaders in LatAm. I suspect that Mujica thought he could outwit them. Bad mistake, giving them an exclusive interview--in my opinion. You can't outwit the unscrupulous.

[roody]

15. Knr for this reply.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Had no idea any conversation would take off in this completely incomprehensible direction.

So many DU'ers have known since long ago the fact this man was a rebel against the military/industrial/fascist government running, and ruining Uruguay, the very country which enlisted the U.S. Government's very own torturer, who was hired by Eisenhower's State Department after having been the Chief of Police in Gary, Indiana, to work in the CIA. He had his torture tools brought into Uruguay to use against the members of the rebel group, Tupamaros, of which Mujica and his wife were both members, getting those tools delivered to him in the diplomatic pouches sent to the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo.

He and his wife, Lucia, were both tortured, and spend years and years in prison. He KNOWS about fascism intimately. That's why the people of his country knew he could be trusted to be a decent leader for them, as one of four Latin American former rebels currently serving as Presidents until fascist organizations can find some way to destroy them, too. They are beyond courageous.

It never, ever, occurred to me someone would take the article, which I believed to highlight his comments over a U.S. light-weight attempt to allow distribution over Paraguay's, and run away with it in an attack on Mujica. Jesus H. Christ.

I had absolutely no idea how to approach it to get it straightened out.

Your post is more welcome than rain here! Thank you so much.

[FrodosPet]

23. Did President Jose Mujica give an interview to the Associated Press?

Is the following article complete fiction - there was no interview? Did he grant an interview, but the AP mistranslated or made up quotes? I am not quite sure what you are saying here.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/03/uruguay-marijuana-market-rules_n_5259439.html

~ snip ~

"It's a complete fiction what they do in Colorado" in terms of controlling the sale and use of legal marijuana, Mujica said in an Associated Press interview.

~ snip ~

Mujica predicted that many will call him an elderly reactionary once they see this fine print, but he says his government never intended to create a mecca for marijuana lovers.

"No addiction is good," he said. "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."

With bona fide plants registered at the molecular level, police can test for illegal weed wherever they encounter it, and arrest anyone with pot that lacks the proper genetic markers, the rules say.

~ snip ~

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. Take a deep breath and get a clue.

Mujica may be a grumpy old man--who never smoked pot--but calling him a fascist is so ludicrously wrong-headed it's not even funny.

Herer's the Wikipedia entry. I suggest you read it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mujica

José Mujica

José Alberto "Pepe" Mujica Cordano (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse muˈxika]; born 20 May 1935) has been President of Uruguay since 2010. A former guerrilla fighter and a member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, Mujica was Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and a Senator afterwards. As the candidate of the Broad Front, he won the 2009 presidential election and took office as President on 1 March 2010.

He has been described as "the world's 'poorest' president", due to his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90 percent of his $12,000 (£7,500) monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs.[1][2]


Early life[edit]

Mujica was born on 20 May 1935, to Demetrio Mujica, of Spanish Basque ancestry,[3][4] and Lucy Cordano, a daughter of Italian immigrants. Mujica's father was a small farmer who went bankrupt shortly before his death in 1940, when his son was five. His mother's parents were very poor immigrants from Liguria. Lucy Cordano was born in Carmelo, where her parents had bought five acres in Colonia Estrella to cultivate vineyards. Between the ages of 13 and 17, Mujica cycled for several clubs in different categories. He was also active in the National Party, where he became close to Enrique Erro.

Guerrilla leader[edit]

See also: Tupamaros

In the early 1960s, he joined the newly formed Tupamaros movement, an armed political group inspired by the Cuban revolution.[5] He participated in the 1969 brief takeover of Pando, a town close to Montevideo, and was later convicted by a military tribunal under the government of Jorge Pacheco Areco, who had suspended certain constitutional guarantees.[6][7] Mujica was captured by the authorities on four occasions, and he was among those political prisoners who escaped Punta Carretas Prison in 1971.[8] He was eventually re-apprehended in 1972, and was shot by the police six times. After the military coup in 1973, he was transferred to a military prison. In all, he served 14 years. During the 1970s, this included being confined to the bottom of a well for more than two years.[9] During his time in prison, he remained in contact with other leaders of the Tupamaros, including Frente Amplio Senator Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro and the founder and leader of the Tupamaros, Raúl Sendic.

In 1985, when constitutional democracy was restored, Mujica was freed under an amnesty law that covered political and related military crimes committed since 1962.[10]

Several years after the restoration of democracy, Mujica and the Tupamaros joined other left-wing organizations to create the Movement of Popular Participation,[11] a political party that was accepted within the Broad Front coalition.

In the 1994 general elections, Mujica was elected deputy and in the elections of 1999 he was elected senator. Due in part to Mujica's charisma, the MPP continued to grow in popularity and votes, and by 2004, it had become the largest of any faction within the Broad Front. In the elections of that year, Mujica was re-elected to the Senate, and the MPP obtained over 300,000 votes, thus consolidating its position as the primary political force within the coalition and a major force behind the victory of presidential candidate Tabaré Vázquez.

Minister of Agriculture[edit]

On 1 March 2005, President Tabaré Vázquez designated Mujica as the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (Mujica's own professional background was in the agricultural sector). Upon becoming minister, Mujica resigned his position as senator. He held this position until a cabinet change in 2008, when he resigned and was replaced by Ernesto Agazzi. Mujica then returned to his seat in the Senate.

Political positions[edit]

Mujica's political ideology has evolved over the years from orthodox to pragmatist. In recent times he has expressed a desire for a more flexible political left.[12] His speaking style and manner is credited as part of his growing popularity since the late 1990s, especially among rural and poor sectors of the population.[13] He has been variously described as an "antipolitician"[14] and a man who "speaks the language of the people" while also receiving criticism for untimely or inappropriate remarks.[15] Unlike president Vázquez, who vetoed a bill put forward by parliament that would make abortions legal, Mujica has stated that should it come before him in the future, he would not veto such a bill.[16] In the sphere of international relations, he hopes to further negotiations and agreements between the European Union and the regional trade bloc Mercosur, of which Uruguay is a founding member.[17] Throughout the ongoing dispute between Argentina and Uruguay regarding pulp mills on the shared river, Mujica has remained closer to the Argentine government than the previous administration, taking a position that could possibly help to resolve the conflict.[18] Asked about Brazilian President Lula da Silva's decision to receive Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he answered it was a "genius move" because "The more Iran is fenced in, the worse it will be for the rest of the world".[19][20]

Presidential candidate[edit]

Even though President Vázquez favored his Finance Minister Danilo Astori as presidential candidate of the then unified Broad Front to succeed him in 2010, Mujica's broad appeal and growing support within the party posed a challenge to the president. On 14 December 2008, The Extraordinary Congress "Zelmar Michelini" (a party convention) proclaimed Mujica as the official candidate of the Broad Front for primary elections of 2009, but four more precandidates were allowed to participate, including Astori. On 28 June 2009, Mujica won the primary elections becoming the presidential candidate of the Broad Front for the 2009 general election. After that, Astori agreed to be his running mate. Their campaign was centered on the concept of continuing and deepening the policies of the highly popular administration of Vázquez, using the slogan “Un gobierno honrado, un país de primera" (An honest government, a first-class country) – indirectly referencing cases of administrative corruption within the former government of the major opposition candidate, conservative Luis Alberto Lacalle. During the campaign, Mujica distanced himself from the governing style of presidents like Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) or Evo Morales (Bolivia), claiming the center-left governments of Brazilian Luis Inácio Lula da Silva or Chilean socialist Michelle Bachelet as regional examples upon which he would model his administration. Known for his informal style of dress, Mujica donned a suit (without a tie) for some stops in the presidential campaign, notably during visits to regional heads of state.[21]

In October 2009, Mujica won a plurality of over 48 percent of the votes compared to 30 percent for former president Lacalle, falling short of the majority required by the constitution, while at the same time renewing the Broad Front's parliamentary majority for the next legislature (2010–2015). A runoff was then held on 29 November to determine the winner; on 30 November Mujica emerged as the victor, with more than 52% of the vote over Lacalle's 43%.[22] In his first speech as president-elect before a crowd of supporters, Mujica acknowledged his political adversaries and called for unity, stating that there would be no winners or losers ("Ni vencidos, ni vencedores&quot . He added that "it is a mistake to think that power comes from above, when it comes from within the hearts of the masses (...) it has taken me a lifetime to learn this".[23]

Government[edit]

Mujica formed a cabinet made up of politicians from the different sectors of the Broad Front, conceding the economics area to aides of his vice president Danilo Astori. The expectations were high, as Mujica is the first former guerrilla fighter to become President in Uruguay.

In June 2012, his government made a move to legalize state-controlled sales of marijuana in order to fight drug-related crimes and health issues, and stated that they would ask global leaders to do the same.[24] Time magazine featured an article on the matter.[25] Mujica said that by regulating Uruguay's estimated $40 million-a-year marijuana business, the state will take it away from drug traffickers, and weaken the drug cartels. The state would also be able to keep track of all marijuana consumers in the country, and provide treatment to the most serious abusers, much like what is done with alcoholics.[26]

In September 2013, Mujica addressed the United Nations General Assembly, with a very long discourse devoted to humanity and globalization.[27]

Personal life[edit]

In 2005, Mujica married Lucía Topolansky, a fellow Tupamaro member and current senator, after many years of co-habitation. They have no children and live on an austere farm in the outskirts of Montevideo where they cultivate chrysanthemums for sale, having declined to live in the opulent presidential palace or use its staff.[28] His humble lifestyle is reflected by his choice of an aging Volkswagen Beetle as transport.[29] His wife owns the farm they live on. The Economist in an article writes that some Uruguayans see him as "a roly-poly former guerrilla who grows flowers on a small farm and swears by vegetarianism".[1][30][31][32][33][34] He does not believe in God.[35]

[Judi Lynn]

21. Thanks for bringing this Wiki here for those of us who missed it.

How many countries' presidents will one ever learn has suffered much more for his/her beliefs than President Mujica, anyway? Only three other current Latin American Presidents have been tortured and imprisoned by US-supported fascist governments.

Useful idea, sharing facts concerning his background. It's important to know something about the person being stoned, isn't it?

[Louisiana1976]

26. Thanks for posting this.

Very informative and interesting.

[dionysus]

22. !

[laurent]

12. Price: $30 per ounce.

Licensed pharmacies will sell the drug for less than $1 a gram, with consumers allowed 40g (1.4oz) a month.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014794839

[Lenomsky]

27. Pharmacies ..

.. selling pure horticultural MJ ... what a wonderful idea The Americas' on the front line of sanity! Go guys.!

That would be the death throws for black market MJ and Narco Profits where adulterants are added to add weight and often added to give the visual impression of nice buds with no toxic pesticides.

The health benefit for users alone is reason enough but add a nice revenue stream for Local/State Government its a win-win. I sincerely hope the actions in Colorado and Washington leads to a snow ball effect and the EU and especially the UK Government take notice rather poo poo educated professionals like our Prof Nutt.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/30/david-nutt-drugs-adviser-sacked

Nutt had accused ministers of "devaluing and distorting" the scientific evidence over illicit drugs by their decision last year to reclassify cannabis from class C to class B against the advice of the ACMD.

As an occasional smoker of MJ (yes it's bad I should make cookies) I need to be very careful as one police caution could bar me entry to your fine country forever

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked

Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

Apologies for meandering off topic but this drugs are ALL bad and almost zero government funded harm reduction schemes leaves me confounded and angry .. it's the 21st century!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

20. Maybe the U.S. has a lot to learn about handling the drug issue

and people buying marijuana for fake illnesses are engaged in a kind of hypocritical game. But at least I think we're moving in the right direction and it will take time. Let's see how countries like Uruguay and others handle government attempts to legalize it and regulate it.

[Lenomsky]

28. Some fake illnesses ...

maybe life/work stresses which I consider real in our hectic world so why not a cookie or a puff in the evening to chillax

I wish Uruguay the best licensing a pretty innocuous herb when consumed in moderation and safely or as directed by your MD/GP.

[Throckmorton]

29. I can always self medicate with Booze

Of course being a diabetic it is a little hard of the blood surgar levels.

[Lenomsky]

30. Careful ..

... I never eat candy as I'm just not a sugar lover except after a spliff

I hope your Diabetes is in check and controlled my friend and you can have the odd 'light beer' from time to time.

[Throckmorton]

31. It is and has been for years,

I just forgo all kinds of stuff that is unnecessary, like beer and processed sugars of all types.

Homemade bread still makes me weep though, some things are easier than others.

Thanks for the concerns, and a great day

[Judi Lynn]

25. State-sanctioned marijuana sales defended by Uruguay president

State-sanctioned marijuana sales defended by Uruguay president
04/05 00:53 CET

Uruguay’s president has been answering his critics over state-sanctioned marijuana sales, a move aimed at undermining drug trafficking in the country.

A new law will allow up to six plants to be grown for personal use. Consumers will be able to buy up to 40 grams a month from licensed pharmacies.

Uruguay has said it is also considering having marijuana grown on a plot of land controlled by the military.

These are unconventional moves spearheaded by an unconventional president – 78-year-old former leftist guerrilla fighter José Mujica.

“What is clear is that what we have been doing in terms of combatting drugs does not work. You can’t try to change by keep doing the same thing,” he said.

More:
http://www.euronews.com/2014/05/04/state-sanctioned-marijuana-sales-defended-by-uruguay-president/

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Uruguay to allow pot users to buy up to 20 joints a week
Reuters
April 25, 2014, 1:46 am

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Uruguayans will be able buy up to 10 grams of pot a week, enough to roll 20 joints, under new rules governing the recently legalized marijuana trade in the country, a government source said on Thursday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because President Jose Mujica has not yet decreed the new regulations, said the government will auction up to six licenses to produce cannabis legally.

Mujica is expected to sign off on the rules in coming days. He proposed the landmark legalization law to undermine drug trafficking.

Uruguay, the first country to legalize the growing and sale of marijuana, is being closely watched by other countries debating drug liberalization.

More:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/offbeat/a/22920216/

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Will Carless April 20, 2014 04:20

Uruguay may treat drug-addicted prisoners with medical weed. Here's how that would work.

While officials in Uruguay debate the possibility, we got curious how it would even work. Here's what we found.


MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Furthering its international reputation as a cannabis vanguard, this small South American country could start treating its drug-addicted prisoners with medical marijuana.

How serious Uruguay is about allowing incarcerated addicts to toke up is hard to gauge.

According to the Huffington Post, the country’s undersecretary for public health told the United Nations earlier this month that Uruguay was “considering” this treatment. A few days later, the nation’s drug czar, Julio Calzada, told The Associated Press a similar story: that Uruguayan prisoners would be allowed access to medicinal cannabis.

But when GlobalPost cornered Diego Canepa, president of the National Drug Council (and boss of both the other sources) at a conference here in Montevideo on April 10, Canepa poured scorn on the idea.

“No, no, no, no, no, there are no plans to do that,” he said when asked to confirm the reports about future prison pot access. “We have to take one step at a time.”

While the government figures out what its policy is on this issue, we thought we’d take a look at the underlying science behind this idea: Can you effectively treat addiction to narcotics like cocaine and methamphetamine with medical marijuana? Or is replacing one drug with another just going to exacerbate a prisoner’s drug habit?

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140418/uruguay-prisoners-medical-marijuana