Uruguay’s President Mujica at his farm on the outskirts of Montevideo Photo: ANDRES STAPFF/REUTERS
By Donna Bowater, Montevideo
7:00AM BST 31 Mar 2014
On the fields of his small farm half an hour’s drive from central Montevideo,
Jose Mujica has just harvested his annual crop of chard.
But as president of Uruguay, he is about to oversee an unprecedented
experiment in a far more controversial cultivation – cannabis.
The small South American country of three million people will soon become the
first in the world to legalise, regulate and participate in the production,
sale and taxation of marijuana.
Uruguay’s “weed revolution” will be scrutinised across the globe as
international leaders wrestle with narcotics policy amid deepening critiques
of the long-standing principles of the “war on drugs”.
Mr Mujica, a 78-year-old former Left-wing guerrilla and political prisoner, is
no stranger to headlines after his decision to eschew the presidential
palace in favour of his ramshackle farmhouse and give away 90 per cent of
his £7,100-a-month salary.
But in an interview conducted with the Telegraph in the dimly-lit front room
of his bungalow, where he has lived for 30 years amid piles of agricultural
tomes, the heating provided by an ancient wood burner, he expressed his
surprise at the international controversy.
“It’s targeting the battle against drug trafficking,” he said. “It’s not a law
supporting addiction. It’s a way of battling the black market economy.”
Mr Mujica waxed lyrical, even as he talked about the scourge of drugs. “Every
addiction is a plague, except for love,” said the president, whose only
personal flirtation with substance abuse is his cigarette habit.
“The thing is, if you take two whiskies every day then that’s okay, it’s not
good, but if you take a whole bottle every day, then you have a problem and
you should be treated for it.”
Under the radical new law, which comes into force next month, not only are
citizens and private businesses allowed to grow, buy and sell cannabis, but
the government will also enter into the marijuana business itself –
cultivating and harvesting the crop, distributing and selling it from
authorised outlets and taxing the profits.
The legislation is much more sweeping that in the famously liberal
Netherlands, where cultivation remains banned, or the new arrangements in
the US states of Colorado and Washington, where there is no direct
government involvement.
Mr Mujica and his allies argue that the new policy offers a ground-breaking
alternative to what they call the failures of the “war on drugs” championed
by the US in Latin America, which has killed tens of thousands in producer
and transit countries while comparatively little is done in the consumer
nations of Europe and the US.
With its port city capital of Montevideo and its borders with Brazil,
Argentina and Paraguay, Uruguay has its own experience of that trafficking
as a transit point across the continent and to Europe.
“Mostly, the drug is produced in Latin America but the biggest consumers are
the rich world.” said Mr Mujica, echoing a familiar lament of leaders in the
region.
The law aims to deliver a major blow to the narco-cartels trafficking hard
drugs by removing one of their biggest money-earners.
“If you want to change a reality, it’s foolish to continue doing the same
thing instead of changing something, even if it hasn’t been successful,” Mr
Mujica said.
Under the new law, Uruguayans will be able to buy a limited amount of
cannabis, expected to be capped at around 1.4oz (40 grams) a month, for a
competitive price from pharmacies or from Post Office-type one-stop shops,
which are normally used for paying bills or changing money.
Users will have to register on a government-held database and those who make
excessive requests will be referred to health authorities for treatment. The
database also intended to ensure that only Uruguayan residents can buy the
product in an effort to reduce the risks of drug tourism.
The marijuana bill is one of a trio passed during Mr Mujica’s administration -
the second term for the left-wing Broad Front coalition – that has earned
Uruguay an unlikely reputation as the most liberal country in Latin America.
Same-sex marriage was introduced last September, while a year earlier,
abortion was legalised abortion for all women.
But in the traditionally conservative Roman Catholic country, opinion polls
indicate that many Uruguayans dislike their president’s “weed revolution”,
The opposition comes both from those who believe the policy will encourage
drug use and who simply do not support the “nationalisation” of the cannabis
trade.
His critics cite the recent re-think in the Netherlands, where possession of
up to five grams of marijuana has been legal since 1976 and the country has
long since been known for its tolerant drugs policy. However a law was
recently passed banning coffee shops from selling cannabis to foreigners
after drug tourism spiralled.
Mr Mujica is, however, undeterred, saying that his opponents are simply
“scared” by such dramatic change. He insisted that the law would not
increase marijuana use and added there would be safeguards in place to
prevent drug tourism.
But he also acknowledged that the new law could pave the way for the
decriminalisation of other drugs.
He has his regional allies: the Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina has
also spoken out against the war on drugs, while the Mexican president
Enrique Pena Nieto has ended his predecessor’s relentless military struggle
with the narco-traffickers. The president of Colombia has called for a
re-think.
Amid a more cautious approach in Europe, last month Norman Baker, the Liberal
Democrat Home Office minister, held an hour-long video conference with
Uruguayan officials, discussing the public health and security implications
of their new law.
There are meanwhile practical challenges for implementing the ambitious new
policy, not least that for now Uruguay does not produce enough cannabis for
supply to meet demand. at least demand
Broad Front Party leaders, including Senator Lucia Topolansky, who also
happens to be the first lady, suggested that Canadian medical marijuana
producers could fill the gap in the interim.
“To start with, we will have to buy cannabis,” she said recently. “I think
that we’re going to buy it from Canada, because that’s where the best
quality is.”
That was news to Canada, where a health ministry spokeswoman said there were
“no plans” to export marijuana to Uruguay, or indeed anywhere else.
For Mr Mujica, his role at the vanguard of international drugs policy is
another chapter in a remarkable life. As he prepares to leave office next
year, planning already to set up a school to teach agriculture on his
beloved farm, the self-declared atheist reflected on his personal
philosophy.
“They say I’m a poor president but I’m not, “ he said, noting rather that “I’m
a sober president”.
He continued: “I used to live for many years in a dungeon where on the nights
that I got a mattress, I would be happy. I can’t believe in God but every
day I believe a little bit more in nature.
“I learned this very simple lesson: life is beautiful so you have to live it
with intensity and pursue happiness.”
Legalising cannabis: Uruguay's president Jose Mujica asks world for support
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