Final Uruguay Marijuana Legalization Vote Set for Next Week

It looks like the fat lady is about to sing. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, which has an operative in Montevideo, the Uruguayan Senate will vote next week, most likely next Tuesday, on the pending bill to legalize marijuana commerce. That’s the final vote.

The bill is sponsored by the government and has already passed the House on a 50-46 vote in July. Once approved in the Senate, the government will have 120 days to write regulations before the law goes into effect.

Once the law goes into effect, Uruguay will have become the first country on the planet to break the global prohibitionist consensus embodied in the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and subsequent treaties when it comes to marijuana legalization.

The Dutch have long allowed limited retail sales, but they remain formally illegal, and the supply remains criminalized, and other countries have decriminalized possession, but not taken the next step. Two US states have taken the next step, but marijuana commerce remains illegal under federal law.

If things go as planned, December 10, 2013, could be a day for the history books.

Article republished from Stop the Drug War under Creative Commons Licensing