{"id":7435,"date":"2017-05-30T18:24:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T18:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=6198"},"modified":"2017-05-30T18:24:28","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T18:24:28","slug":"uruguay-the-first-country-where-you-can-smoke-marijuana-wherever-you-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/uruguay-the-first-country-where-you-can-smoke-marijuana-wherever-you-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Uruguay, The First Country Where You Can Smoke Marijuana Wherever You Like"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/uruguay-the-first-country-where-you-can-smoke-marijuana-wherever-you-like\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Alicia Castilla was watering the plants in her garden on a quiet Sunday afternoon when five police patrol cars screeched to a halt outside her home. A team of 14 officers \u201carmed to the teeth\u201d stormed through her gate and arrested the mild-mannered, 66-year-old intellectual. They seized everything they could find: computers, her mobile phone, books, even an orange squeezer.<\/p>\n<p>They also impounded the 29 cannabis plants she was watering and 24g of marijuana they found in her possession. She was taken to a police station where she spent the night handcuffed to a bench. \u201cThey treated me like the female version of Pablo Escobar,\u201d Castilla told the Observer. But far from resembling the infamous Colombian drug lord who inspired the 2015 Netflix series Narcos, Castilla was a peace-loving, grey-haired author whose book Cultura Cannabis had become an unexpected bestseller. Like many Argentinian sexagenarians, she had recently retired to nearby Uruguay. The seized plants were for her personal use. \u201cI make a living writing about marijuana, not selling it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Castilla\u2019s arrest in 2011 sent Uruguay into shock. Although the consumption of recreational drugs had never been outlawed in a country that prides itself on its broad-mindedness and liberal institutions, its cultivation and sale remained forbidden. The author faced between two and 10 years behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>Her imprisonment at the women\u2019s prison in the town of Canelones became round-the-clock news. \u201cI fell into a foul-smelling pit that reminded me of Midnight Express. Cockroaches crawled over the bed, there were rats the size of rabbits in the bathrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Castilla realised she had become a national celebrity when her fellow inmates broke into spontaneous applause on her arrival. The eldest of the 120 women imprisoned there, her fellow inmates nicknamed her \u201cthe reefer grandmother\u201d, a moniker that was quickly picked up by the press.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands marched to demand her release. The protests soon galvanised a longstanding demand for the full legalisation of recreational cannabis. \u201cThe media coverage was crazy. Legislators started bringing legal marijuana draft bills for me to look at in prison,\u201d Castilla, now 72, recalls.<\/p>\n<p>Her three-month incarceration (and the lengthy series of trials until the case was dismissed by Uruguay\u2019s supreme court last year) finally paid off. The cultivation of cannabis was legalised in 2014, and in July Uruguay will become the first country in the world where its sale is legal across the entire territory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s important for Uruguay to advance towards a logical regulation of recreational marijuana,\u201d says Eduardo Blasina, director of the recently inaugurated Cannabis Museum located in a large terracotta-coloured property in the old Palermo neighbourhood of Uruguay\u2019s capital city, Montevideo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe law gives consumers access to certified, unadulterated marijuana,\u201d says Blasina. \u201cSouth America\u2019s war against drugs has been absurd, with catastrophic results no matter which indicators you consider, including consumption. If Uruguay\u2019s experience turns out positive, it will be easier for other countries such as Colombia or Mexico, mired in huge problems with powerful narcos, to find a better solution than the disastrous one implemented so far.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Laura Marcos, one of the most energetic campaigners for legalisation, Uruguay\u2019s unique history of never having prohibited the consumption of any drug was key. \u201cWe found this grey area in the law where consumption was legal but cultivation was not, so every time a marijuana-grower was taken prisoner it was reinforcing the message that the only place to obtain access to a legal substance was on the illegal market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But not everyone is pleased with how legal marijuana is being implemented in Uruguay. \u201cI\u2019m happy because now you can plant without going to prison,\u201d says Juan Manuel Varela, the 28-year-old manager of MDAR (Spanish-language acronym for high-quality marijuana), one of the cannabis clubs that have been set up under the new legislation. \u201cBut like many things in Uruguay, the new law is a good idea that is being applied badly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cannabis activists such as Varela and Castilla are upset that the new law falls short of full legalisation. Home growers are required to register with the government for a permit that grants them a maximum of six plants, and cannabis clubs such as Varela\u2019s require permits for a maximum of 45 members who are allowed to withdraw only 40g per month from the club\u2019s crop.<\/p>\n<p>Most controversial of all, when the law goes into full effect in July, legal marijuana will only be available at pharmacies. Though the price will be highly accessible, only $1.30 per gramme compared with $3 on the street, consumers must register with the government first. They will then be required to identify themselves with a digital thumb scan to withdraw their weekly maximum of 10g.<\/p>\n<p>The government has taken important precautions to prevent the registry falling into the wrong hands because of the privacy issues involved. Pharmacists will not be given the name of the client associated with each thumb scan. Only the amount of grammes still available from each client\u2019s quota will be revealed on the pharmacy\u2019s screen. Additionally, only seven members of the government will have access to the full registry, and three of them will need to be present simultaneously in order to retrieve any names from it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like a police file they\u2019re building of planters and consumers,\u201d says Daniel Vidart, another long-time cannabis activist and author who met, fell in love with and married Castilla shortly after her release from prison six years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The impressively spritely 96-year-old is a personal friend of Uruguay\u2019s former president, Jos\u00e9 \u201cPepe\u201d Mujica, who introduced a series of liberal reforms during his 2010-2015 term in office, including same-sex marriage, abortion and the sale of state-controlled marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Vidart is highly critical of his friend\u2019s marijuana law. \u201cThis law actually stigmatises marijuana more than it legalises it,\u201d says Vidart, holding his wife Castilla\u2019s hand. \u201cWhy should there be a registry of marijuana consumers and not one of alcohol consumers? Alcohol is a much deadlier drug. This law continues considering that marijuana smokers are so dangerous that they need to be counted by the government. And a registry is more or less safe as long as you have a democratic government, but it could become a weapon against consumers should the political mood change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The registry was opened at the beginning of May. So far about 3,500 people (out of Uruguay\u2019s population of 3.4 million) have signed up to buy marijuana at pharmacies. Additionally, since 2014 about 6,700 have signed up as home growers and 57 cannabis clubs have been set up, according to the government\u2019s Cannabis Regulation and Control Institute.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the media attention, sales seem to be likely to get off to a slow start. \u201cOnly 30 of the country\u2019s 1,000 pharmacies have signed up to sell marijuana so far,\u201d says Alejandro Antalich, vice-president of the Uruguayan pharmacies association.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur society can be conservative, resistant to change, so there is still uncertainty and many pharmacists are waiting to see how the system works before signing up to sell. There is also fear of reprisals against pharmacies from corner drug traffickers upset at losing their clients.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Castilla also has mixed feelings about the new law. \u201cI would like to see full freedom to plant in your own home,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Has she registered to plant or buy. \u201cNo, I haven\u2019t.\u201d Is she still growing at home? \u201cYes, I am.\u201d Isn\u2019t she afraid of falling foul of the new law? \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019d dare come after me again,\u201d says Castilla with a twinkle in her eye.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/uruguay-the-first-country-where-you-can-smoke-marijuana-wherever-you-like.png\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Ron Strider <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2017\/may\/27\/marijuana-legalisation-uruguay-seen-half-measure-users\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Uruguay, the first country where you can smoke marijuana wherever you like | Society | The Guardian<\/a><br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/about-guardian-us\/contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Contact the Guardian US | Info | The Guardian<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Miguel Rojo<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News, sport and opinion from the Guardian&#8217;s US edition | The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alicia Castilla was watering the plants in her garden on a quiet Sunday afternoon when five police patrol cars screeched&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2017\/05\/uruguay-first-country-can-smoke-marijuana-wherever-like\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}