Marijuana (Photo courtesy of Flores y Plantas on Flickr)

Earlier today border police found 14kg of marihuana hidden inside the body cavity of a slaughtered pig.

The suitcase carrying the illicit substance was pulled from the hold of a long distance bus in the Northern province of Misiones.

The police operation took place in the bus station of the city of Posadas, approximately 1000km North West of Buenos Aires and 33km South of the so-called “Triple Border” between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.

The small blue suitcase aroused suspicion when police noted it was unusually heavy. Upon closer inspection, they found the carcass of a dead pig. The stomach had been badly sewn up through the middle, where it emerged the drugs had been stashed.

In total, ten rectangular packets of marihuana were removed from the pigs stomach, whilst a further 8 packets were found wrapped in a blanket in another part of the suitcase.

A press release issued by border patrol revealed that the owner of the suitcase was a Paraguayan male.

Latin America is no stranger to odd drug related hijinks – in February Mexican officials a marihuana firing canon which was being used to fire packets of marijuana over the border into California.

Uruguayan president José ‘Pepe’ Mujica (photo by Roosewelt Pinheiro/ABr on Wikipedia)

Frans Bronkhorst, head of the NGO Drugs Peace Institute visited Montevideo last week to secure the presidents seal of approval. He went on to say that “Mujica is the first person in the world who has proposed an end to this war [on drugs] that serves no one.”

He also outlined the new drug paradigm created by Uruguay’s president. The “war on drugs” he claims has been replaced with the “peace of drugs”. June of last year saw proposals to decriminalise the drug, and for state control and regulation of marijuana imports. The initiative also sought to establish the government’s involvement and running of the “storing, commercialisation, and distribution of marijuana and its derivatives” giving it a monopoly.

The Uruguayan legislator Sebastián Sabini however argued that the president should not be considered a candidate for the prize solely on the basis of his drug lesgislation. This is due in part to the fact that in December last year the president asked legislators to suspend the debate following a national survey in which found 64% of citizens to be against the proposals.

The debate is set to be re-opened later this month following the recess. Sabini believes the nomination ought to be more robust in order to include of the presidents’ talents including his “spirit of harmony” and his “search for consensus.”

Bronkhorst also cites the presidents “austerity” and “anti-capitalist” sentiment as motives for the nomination.

In a hope to combat the ever growing drug trade, the government of Uruguay is considering legalising and regulating the sale of marihuana. President Jose Mujica hopes the drastic shift in approaching the addicting trade will help control quality, safety, and amount while taking money out of the pockets of drug lords.

The government also hopes the potential law will encourage the use of marihuana in place of harsher and more addictive drugs like cocaine. The use of marihuana is already legal in the small country of 3.3 million where Mujica has described the drug war as “unwinnable.”

The announcement has met both praise and criticism across the world, specifically from the U.S. who has staunchly rejected all pushes from Latin American countries in the legalisation of marihuana before. The UN International Narcotics Control Board, which enforces the illegality of marihuana legalisation, is also at odds with Mujica’s government.

Here in Argentina, where the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use is being debated in Congress, the proposed law is also being met with varying reactions. The Argentina Independent hit the streets to find out why the response is so diverse.

Eduardo Viggiano (Photo: Grace Protopapas)

Eduardo Viggiano, 60, Artisan, Almagro

At first I thought it wouldn’t help because people who are going to consume it will consume it no matter what. Especially those people who need it for medical reasons. However, now I believe it will help because it will make it easier for them. Right now [medical users] are not allowed to grow it in their house so they have to go through traffickers, which is a dirty business. It would be better if it was a national business instead of what it is right now, where the people who are dealing are not good people. Even here in Argentina a bunch of us have gotten together in Palermo to talk about the potential legalisation of marihuana and the benefits of it. I think government control would be good.

Ôlonia Castro (Photo: Lauren White)

Ôlonia Castro, 51, Pharmacy Technician, Chile

I’m against it because my son has been addicted to marihuana for many many years and it did a lot of bad things to him. He crashed his car, he almost died because of it. For many years I tried to take him away from it but I didn’t know what to do. He’s 21 years old and he’s been into marihuana since he was 14. It will be really bad if people can just take it openly, there will be no restriction. I took my son to a rehabilitation centre for a year but after that he went back again, he said he loved it, he couldn’t live without it. He was born in the US but we recently moved to Chile to try to help him forget about it, about his friends, everything related to it. Now he’s finally getting better. So I am against it because for me there needs to be that restriction.

Johanna Lipartiti (Photo: Lauren White)

Johanna Lipartiti, 24, Artist, Capilla del Monte, Cordoba

I think it’s good because it is necessary. To smoke marihuana is a personal decision that doesn’t affect anything or anyone else. It is your decision whether or not to smoke it and it shouldn’t fall under this veil of criticism. It shouldn’t be seen as always being bad. Medically speaking it is also good. If people need to smoke marihuana to feel better then this will be good for them as well. I think we should have the same thing here in Argentina.

Tomás Valdés (Photo: Lauren White)

Tomás Valdés, 24, Professional Dancer, Santiago de Chile

I don’t think it will have much of an impact because legal or illegal people are going to consume it. As much as they want to control it and regulate it or even avoid it, people are still going to do it. Even if they legally start making it, it doesn’t matter;people who want to smoke marihuana are going to smoke marihuana whether or not it’s legal. The people . . . are going to consume it no matter what.

Federico Duarte (Photo: Lauren White)

Federico Duarte, 21, Student, Palermo

I think that it is a good idea to make marihuana legal. They understand and realise that people are going to smoke it no matter what. Although this might create a rise in the production of marihuana I also think it will curb people because there will be controlled now. Either way, illegal or legal, people will consume it. This however, will calm things down and people will know that the conditions [of the marihuana] are good and they won’t imagine it as being that wrong. With time they will become a little more used to it and because it isn’t so wrong anymore it will drop. I also think it’s good because it creates clear limits and I think it is good to have these limits.

Uruguay President Jose Mujica (Photo: Santiago Armas)

For a small country of 3.3 million people, Uruguay has a big voice. It was heard loud and clear two weeks ago when President José Mujica announced a plan that would put the legal control —production, sales and distribution — of marihuana in the sole hands of the Uruguayan government. Mujica refers to the plan as an anti-crime measure, a direct assault on drug dealers and the black market, which is becoming increasingly violent in Uruguay.

Government control of the marihuana market would deprive gangs of marihuana profits, US$750 million a year to be exact, while nixing the consumer and drug dealer interaction. Part of the plan is also to combat harder drug use. It is hoped that legal access to marihuana will divert users away from cocaine and pasta base, a crack-like drug known as paco in Argentina.

Julio Calzada, secretary general of Uruguay’s National Drug Board, has said the bill aims “to regulate the quality of the substance that circulates in the market and separate the cannabis market from other drugs that are by their nature more harmful to health, society and security.”

Though the kinks are still being worked out and the bill is yet to be presented to Congress, a left-wing majority indicates it is only a matter of time before it is approved. The institution of the proposal would make the Uruguayan state the only one in South America to directly sell marihuana.

Paving the Way 

At April’s Summit of the Americas in Colombia, Latin American leaders cleared the air to discuss Latin America’s current drug crisis, which has claimed over 50,000 lives in Mexico throughout the last six years, and turned countries like Honduras into violent narco trafficking zones.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina and Salvadorian president Mauricio Funes have all voiced consideration of marihuana decriminalisation. While no particular plans were made at the summit, Latin American leaders were able to agree on one thing: the current fight against drug trafficking has failed and a new solution is needed.

Uruguay Government building in Montevideo (Photo: Josealoly)

Uruguay’s defence minister, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, has said drug violence, plus the growing costs of interdiction and incarceration, are “causing more problems than the drugs themselves.”

Uruguay has seen a rise in crime stemming from drug deals. In April 2011, a major Colombian drug trafficking ring was found operating in Montevideo, and a May 2011 survey by the polling firm Interconsult showed 62% of Uruguayans felt Uruguay was becoming more unsafe.

Mujica said a country needed to step up to the plate in drug decriminalisation, and that Uruguay would be the one to do it. He said smaller Latin American nations are better posed to attempt experiments like this one, as it gives large countries something to learn from. “Uruguay is a small country, where these sort of things are easier to do,” Mujica said to Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

Mujica’s bold proposal is not unique for Uruguay, a country famous for its progressive policies. Uruguay was the first country in South America to legalise divorce, grant women the right to vote and recognise the rights of trade unions.

The Proposal

As opposed to decriminalisation, which only lessens and revises the penalties for possession of marihuana, the proposed bill is a legalisation measure, allowing the legal use of marihuana as marketed by the Uruguayan government.

The plan is part of a 16-measure package designed by the government to combat violence and public insecurity.

Several of the bill’s details are still being debated, and Fernández Huidobro has said more details are to come soon. As it stands, state authorised networks, including businesses and marihuana-associated clubs, will sell and distribute the drug. Self-cultivation is not included in the bill, and previous attempts to legalise it have not passed through Congress.

Only Uruguayan citizens 18 years of age or older will be able to purchase a maximum of 30 grams (40 marihuana cigarettes) per month. Profits from a sales tax will be directed toward drug rehabilitation services for users who exceed the monthly cap.

Originally, officials voiced the institution of a registry or user database, to monitor who is receiving the marihuana, as well as how much. However recently, according to the Wall Street Journal, Fernández Huidobro said the registry might not be best, as it “sounds a little authoritarian and perhaps we should avoid it.”

If the bill passes through Congress, Fernández Huidobro said Uruguayan farmers will begin planting in September and harvesting will occur six months later.

The government estimates Uruguay will need 100 hectares of land to cultivate an annual 28,000 kilos of marihuana for the country’s 150,000 users.

Currently, Uruguay does not have a law against marihuana use or possession, though its commercialisation is forbidden. Rodrigo Filpo, 28, from Montevideo, says it is fairly common to see Uruguayans smoking marihuana in public.

The Uruguayan plans, whilst original, are part of a regional movement towards a softer approach to the drug problem. In Argentina, a 2009 Supreme Court ruling deemed it unconstitutional to penalise drug possession for personal use, and a number of bills to decriminalise the possession of marihuana are being debated in Congress. Mexico decriminalised the possession of small amounts of marihuana, cocaine and heroin in 2009. Colombia and Brazil have also taken steps toward decriminalisation of marihuana.

The Implications

Uruguayan officials have made it clear that the government-run marihuana market would exclude foreigners, relieving fears that Uruguay would become another Holland, where marihuana’s legality has made the country a drug tourist destination. Only now are The Netherlands setting roadblocks for tourists seeking access to marihuana.

Passing a joint (Photo: Raoni Gruber)

“We will not allow drug-tourism. Holland made that mistake,” said Julio Calzada, secretary general of the National Drug Board.

The age limit, sales tax, and transparency involved in the bill leave some to question the continued existence of a black market, but officials have voiced their top priority is to prevent marihuana from entering a local or global black market.

According to the Associated Press, Mujica has said that “we’ll have to regulate farm production so there’s no contraband and regulate distribution. We must make sure we don’t affect neighbouring countries or be accused of being an international drug production centre.”

Rafael Bayce García Lagos, a Social Sciences professor at the Republic University in Uruguay, says, “I do not think there will be problems with neighbouring countries, because it will minimise their internal problem of supply. Why would Brazil and Argentina care if there is a drug-tourism industry in Uruguay? They wouldn’t, to the contrary, it would soften the problems they think they might have.”

Uruguay may have a roadblock on its way to passing the bill, though, as Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, recently voiced. He said that if Uruguay legalises marihuana production and distribution, it would be violating the Single Convention, an international agreement between Uruguay and other countries to curb the drug trade and stop trafficking. The International Narcotics Control Board is rumoured to be planning a visit to Uruguay to discuss the country’s movements toward marihuana legalisation.

Internal opinion on the bill remains divided in both political and public realms. García Lagos says there is a “strong current within the leftist coalition [currently in government] that supports the decriminalisation of marihuana and the regulation of self-cultivation.” He adds that young people siding with the Partido Colorado, Partido Blanco and independent parties are also in favour of the bill.

Opposition leaders have called the measure “absurd,” saying it will only worsen drug use in the country. The Wall Street Journal reported Pedro Bordaberry, a Uruguayan opposition leader, as having said, “We were waiting for measures to combat insecurity, and now the government proposes legalising drugs. It makes no sense.”

A June 2012 Interconsult poll showed 60% of Uruguayans are against state-regulation of marihuana.

Others, like Filpo, see the potential promise in the bill. “I don’t see how this plan could make things worse, and if it helps get poor kids out of harder drugs like pasta base, I think it can really have a positive effect among the lowest classes,” he said.

Though supporters and opponents of marihuana legalisation may disagree on the issue, most can agree on the need for action. In the word of the Uruguayan president, “Someone has to get going in South America. Someone has to be the first because we are losing the war against drugs and crime in the continent.”

What do people in Buenos Aires think about their neighbour’s move to legalise marihuana? Click here to find out. 

Two lawmakers from the ruling Frente Amplio (FA) are preparing an initiative to amend the law on possession of marihuana for personal consumption. The proposal will be sent to Congress this week.

The draft was prepared by deputy Sebastián Sabini and Nicolás Núñez, both legislators of the Frente Amplio.

Sabini explained the project estimates that a single person can have 25 grams of marihuana in public. Besides, they can grow their eight plants by their one, on a homemade way.

The deputy explained that “After introducing these measures someone could assume the marihuana is getting traded. ”

As stated the legislators must understand that “not all the people who use marijuana will end up with crack or cocaine. ”

For his part, President of the Chamber of Deputies and member of the opposition National Party, Luis Lacalle Pou, confirmed that ” there should not be set a fixed number of plants that people may have .”

Since “judges must determine whether it is cultivation for personal use or for sale. ”

In the eastern country the sale of marijuana is penalized, while the cultivation for personal use is not.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC