THE WORLD GOING TO POT

Submitted by ub on

A cleverly orchestrated international campaign with extremely good timing and a global growing skeptical public, along with a worldwide weariness over failed marijuana laws are all pointing towards the eventual legalization for the personal use of legal pot.

In the United States of America, the states of Colorado and Washington have legalized the recreational use of marijuana and the US Justice Department has conveniently turned a blind eye to these local laws.

Ever since the herb was legalized for recreational uses in Colorado earlier this year, the world has been watching to see how this social and cultural experiment plays out. With demand and tax revenues growing, other states are lining up to put similar laws on their books.

In South America, the country of Uruguay has become the first in the world to legalize the production and sale of marijuana. This nation with 3 million citizens is leading the way with progressive social policies in Latin America.

In the past year, Uruguay has legalized abortion, gay marriage and marijuana. The government-run program should be in place later this year with rules for marijuana sale and consumption.

The new law doesn’t position Uruguay as a destination for pot tourism, either. Uruguayans will only be allowed to buy marijuana from pharmacies or cannabis clubs. Unlike Washington and Colorado in the United States, the legalization of pot was not put in place by a voter initiative. Legalization was driven by Uruguayan President José Mujica, who claims to be the poorest president in the world. He says he did it to fight drug trafficking and to serve as a model for drug policy all over the world.

While Uruguay’s legalization isn’t geared toward weed tourism, there is a huge potential to create a new industry for both recreational and medicinal uses of cannabis. But it will be highly regulated by the Uruguayan government. Restrictions aside, this is an unprecedented experiment and a potential game changer in the war on drugs, which has taken hundreds of thousands of lives in Latin America.

​How Colorado has gone to pot http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-colorado-has-gone-to-pot

To learn more about the dangers and misconceptions concerning the use of marijuana: http://norml.org