make it legal to grow, sell and consume marijuana.
After nearly 12 hours of debate, senators gave the government-sponsored bill their historic final approval.
The law allowing registered Uruguayans over 18 to buy up to
40g (1,4oz) of the drug a month is not expected to come into
force before April.
The government hopes it will help tackle drug cartels, but
critics say it will expose more people to drugs.
Dozens of supporters of the bill proposed by the left-wing
President Jose Mujica gathered outside the Congress in
Montevideo to follow the vote.
Presenting the bill to fellow Senators, Roberto Conde said it
was an unavoidable response to reality, given that the "war"
against drugs had failed.
"We have the duty as the state to give a specific answer to an
open territory, small and non-producing," Mr Conde said,
adding that Uruguay's borders are used by cartels to smuggle
drugs into neighbouring countries.
But many senators also spoke out against the bill, before it
was passed by 16 votes to 13 on Tuesday.
The opposition member Alfredo Solari said Uruguay should
not "experiment" on its people.
"This project envisages a social engineering experiment and
respects none of the ethic safeguards of experimentation on
human beings, and these are important in the case of a
substance like marijuana, which causes damage to human
beings," Senator Solari told Reuters news agency.
The project had already been approved by Uruguay's lower
house in July.
It had also drawn international criticism. The International
Narcotics Control Board (INCB) warned the law would "be in
complete contravention to the provisions of the international
drug treaties to which Uruguay is party".
The INCB is an independent body of experts established by
the United Nations to monitor countries' compliance with
international drug treaties.
The historic approval comes amid growing debate over drug
legalisation in Latin America.
A group of former presidents and influential social figures,
including Brazil's Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mexico's
Ernesto Zedillo and Colombian ex-leader Cesar Gaviria, have
called for marijuana to be legalised and regulated.
But President Mujica recently asked during an interview why
the former leaders only spoke out about the legalisation of
marijuana after they had left office.
In July, without naming Uruguay directly, Pope Francis
criticised drug legalisation plans during a visit to Brazil.
Uruguay moves to legalize marijuana
The passage of a landmark marijuana legalization measure
Tuesday means Uruguay is set to become the first country in
the world to have a system regulating legal production, sale
and consumption of the drug.
It's practically a done deal. President Jose Mujica has to sign
the bill before it becomes a law. But he's long backed the
measure, and there's little doubt that he remains behind it.
Applause and cheers rang out in Uruguay's Senate on
Tuesday after the high-profile vote at the end of a lengthy
debate on the bill.
The measure passed Uruguay's lower house in July.
Supporters of the proposal have said it marks a turning point
and could inspire other Latin American nations to take a
similar approach.
It places the South American country at the vanguard of
liberal drug policies, surpassing even the Netherlands, where
recreational drugs are illegal but a policy of tolerance is in
place.
"It is understood that a regulation-based policy has positive
consequences for health and public security, given that, on the
one hand, it can produce better results when it comes to
education, prevention, information, treatment and rehabilitation in relation to the problematic uses of drugs,"
said Sen. Roberto Conde of Uruguay's Broad Front coalition,
which supported the measure. "On the other hand, it helps
fight drug trafficking, which fuels organized crime and
criminal activities that affect the security of the population."
Via: Punch
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