Government To Sell Pot For 1 A Gram (In Uruguay) - Why?

Government To Sell Pot For $1 A Gram (In Uruguay) - Why?
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKNFAEioFqI
 
"Uruguay's drug tsar says the country plans to sell legal marijuana for $1 a gram to combat drug-trafficking, according to a local newspaper.

The plan to create a government-run legal marijuana industry has passed the lower house of Congress, and Uruguay's president, José Mujica, expects to push it through the Senate soon as part of his effort to explore alternatives in the war on drugs.

The measure would make Uruguay the first country in the world to license and enforce rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for adult consumers."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
 

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/22/uruguay-legal-marijuana-drug-traffickers
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/22/uruguay-legal-marijuana-drug-traffickers
 
<div>The measure would make Uruguay the first country in the world to license and enforce rules for the production and sale of marijuana. Photograph: Anthony Bolante/Reuters

Uruguay's drug tsar says the country plans to sell legal marijuana for $1 a gram to combat drug-trafficking, according to a local newspaper.
The plan to create a government-run legal marijuana industry has passed the lower house of Congress, and Uruguay's president, José Mujica, expects to push it through the Senate soon as part of his effort to explore alternatives in the war on drugs.
<span> President Jose Mujica: seeking alternatives in the war on drugs. Photograph: Andres Stapff/Reuters </span>The measure would make Uruguay the first country in the world to license and enforce rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for adult consumers.
Marijuana sales should start in the second half of 2014 at a price of about $1 a gram, drug chief Julio Calzada told Uruguay's El País, on Sunday – an eighth or less of what it costs at legal medical dispensaries in some US states.
Calzada said one gram would be enough "for one marijuana cigarette or two or three slimmer cigarettes".
He said the idea was not to make money but to fight petty crime and wrench the market away from illegal dealers.
"The illegal market is very risky and of poor quality," he said. The state was going to offer "a safe place to buy a quality product and on top of that, it's going to sell it at the same price".
In August, Calzada had estimated the price would be about $2.50 a gram. Sales would be restricted to locals, who would be able to buy up to 40g a month.
Smoking pot has long been legal in Uruguay, but growing, carrying, buying or selling it has been punishable by prison terms.
About 120,000 Uruguayans consume marijuana at least once a year, according to the National Drug Council. Of these, 75,000 smoke it every week and 20,000 every day.
In the US, the states of Washington and Colorado have legalised marijuana and adopted rules governing its sale. Unlike Uruguay, they will tax marijuana, seeing it as a revenue source, when it goes on legal sale next year.
In Washington, the state marijuana consultant has projected legal pot might cost $13-$17 a gram. Marijuana in the medical dispensaries typically ranges from $8-$14 a gram in Washington depending on quality.

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\tGrowers celebrate as Uruguay prepares to legalize marijuana cultivation, distribution 
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pot-growers-celebrate-as-uruguay-legalizes-cultivation-and-consumption-of-marijuana/2013/10/23/f8044fc6-3bfe-11e3-b0e7-716179a2c2c7_story.html
 
FLORIDA, Uruguay - Pot connoisseurs of the world take note: Uruguay is about to go where no country has gone before by legalizing the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, with the left-of-center government regulating all facets of the trade.
The initiative runs sharply counter to the Obama administration's anti-drug policies, which criminalize the use of marijuana, heroin and cocaine and rely on tough interdiction tactics to stop the flow of drugs from Latin America.
But Julio Rey is eagerly preparing for the day when he and his friends can form a cannabis club to grow marijuana in the lot next to his home in this sleepy farming town 60 miles north of the capital, Montevideo.
\t“To be a grower, once this is up and running, will be something like being a sommelier,” said Rey, 38, who already has eight budding plants he lovingly tends in two specially lighted cabinets.
\tUnder a bill approved by the lower house of the General Assembly and facing a Senate vote in weeks, Uruguayans will be able to grow up to six plants in their homes. Cooperatives of up to 45 members will be able to cultivate up to 99 plants for their own use.
\tGrowers in places such as this rural town would also likely produce for the larger market, selling their harvest to the government. The drug would be supplied to pharmacies, the only retail outlets allowed to sell to individual buyers. Users will have to sign up in a federal registry, and it will be illegal to sell pot to children or foreigners.
\t“This proposal is in line with Uruguayan culture and the role the state has historically had in regulating social vice,” said Sebastián Sabini, a lawmaker who led the campaign for the bill. “We're going to set prices, limit what is produced, prohibit advertising. It's planned and controlled and regulated by the state, where there are private players but the state sets the rules.”
\tWhat the government of President José “Pepe” Mujica is advocating - which will surely become law because of his movement's comfortable majority in the Senate - will make this country of just 3.4 million people a trailblazer. Under Mujica, a 78-year-old former guerrilla, Uruguay has adopted a raft of liberal policies on issues from same-sex marriage to abortion.
\tThe Uruguay proposal is similar to the law in one U.S. state, Colorado, where users will soon be able to buy marijuana at licensed stores and grow a small amount at home. And the Netherlands long ago legalized consumption, with smokers enjoying joints in special cafes. But cultivation there is banned, and no other country has moved to make the production and mass distribution of marijuana legal.
\tJulio Calzada, director of the government's National Drug Board, said the objective is to dismantle a black market that has been supplying Uruguay's 25,000 habitual users with cheap marijuana smuggled in from Paraguay. Although this country is among the safest in the region, it has seen a slight spike in homicides and robberies that has generated a perception of insecurity among Uruguayans.