Uruguay’s president, José Mujica, at his home outside Montevideo. Photograph: Andres Stapff/Reuters

From Reuters in Montevideo –   February 14, 2014 | Thanks to Golden Age of Gaia.

http://tinyurl.com/km8joql

The US and Europe need a new strategy on drugs and should look at alternatives such as the regulated sale of marijuana, says the Uruguayan president, José Mujica, whose country recently legalised the production and sale of cannabis.

In an interview on Thursday, the 78-year-old former leftwing guerrilla said the world’s largest economies, which are the biggest markets for illegal narcotics, needed to tackle drug trafficking using tools other than prohibition.

“The industrial societies are the ones that have to change,” he said. “For a small country, it’s possible to experiment with this, but it’s also very possible for a developed country because of the resources it has.”

In December, Uruguay’s parliament approved a bill to legalise and regulate the sale and production of marijuana.

The move is being closely watched by countries around the world, some of which are seeking to change anti-drug policies that are widely seen as having failed.

“There are big markets, they have great buying power, and that is a big economic attraction. Until things change there, it will be very difficult to change elsewhere,” said Mujica from his home on the outskirts of Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, where he lives in a simple cottage with his wife and dogs.

Mujica pointed to changing laws in other places, including US states that have taken steps to decriminalise and even legalise marijuana use, as evidence of an “undeniable evolution” in attitudes.

Washington and Colorado states recently legalised the sale of cannabis under licence, although federal law in the United States has not changed.

“Any North American state is more important than Uruguay, in dimensions, in its economic force,” he said. “But it’s still a bit like a lady embarrassed to admit her natural sins and lying to herself. What we are doing is much more open.”

Uruguay’s new marijuana laws are scheduled to take effect in April. Citizens will be allowed to grow up to six plants a year in their homes and will be able to buy up to 40g (1.4oz) a month at pharmacies licensed by the state.

The country is not interested in promoting a culture of cannabis tourism, such as that seen in the coffee shops of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, which has a no-penalisation policy. To try to prevent such tourism, marijuana will be available only to Uruguayan residents who are registered on a confidential database.

Mujica conceded that illicit sales were likely to continue nonetheless.

“The consumer will be able to go to the black market. It is bound to keep on existing, but the attack on the black market will be via the market itself, it will affect it,” he said.

Ultimately, what Uruguay is doing is an experiment with no guarantees, he said – but one that someone had to try.

“We are trying to invent a path, picking up experiences as we go. There are people who say that you can’t experiment … That condemns you to failure.”

The American Bankers Association expressed scepticism that the guidance would make much difference [AP]

US Banks Free to Accept Legal Marijuana Money

From Al Jazeera_ February 15, 2014

http://tinyurl.com/q25lhfm

The Obama administration has sought to lessen the fear of prosecution for banks doing business with licensed marijuana companies, further encouraging US states such as Colorado and Washington that are experimenting with legalising the drug.

The Justice and Treasury departments outlined the policy in writing to federal prosecutors and financial institutions nationwide, the Reuters news agency reported.

The guidance stopped short of promising immunity for banks, but made clear that criminal prosecution for money laundering and other crimes was unlikely if they met a series of conditions, officials said.

Currently, processing money from marijuana sales puts federally insured banks at risk of drug racketeering charges, and they therefore refuse to open accounts for marijuana-related businesses, the AP news agency reported.

The guidance was intended to increase the availability of banking services, such as savings and checking accounts, to marijuana shops that typically deal in cash.

Last month, Colorado became the first state to open retail outlets legally permitted to sell marijuana to adults for recreational purposes, in a system similar to what many states have long had in place for alcohol sales.

Washington state is expected to follow Colorado’s lead.

The number of states approving marijuana for medical purposes has also been growing. California was the first in 1996.

It has since been followed by about 20 other states and the District of Columbia.

‘Public safety’

US Attorney General Eric Holder said last month that the administration was planning ways to accommodate marijuana businesses so they would not always be dealing in cash.

“There’s a public safety component to this. Huge amounts of cash, substantial amounts of cash just kind of lying around with no place for it to be appropriately deposited, is something that would worry me just from a law enforcement perspective,” Holder said on January 23 at an appearance at the University of Virginia.

The American Bankers Association expressed scepticism that the guidance would make much difference.

Marijuana sales still violate federal law, so banks are still at risk, said Rob Rowe, a lawyer with the trade group.

“Compliance by a bank will still require extensive resources to monitor any of these businesses, and it’s unlikely the benefits would exceed the costs,” Rowe said in an email to Reuters.

“While we greatly appreciate the efforts by the Department of Justice and the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), guidance or regulation doesn’t alter the underlying challenge for banks.”

The guidance would not protect banks from state laws, and if a wire transfer that moved marijuana-linked money touched a state where the drug is under strict control, a bank that handled the transfer could be open to state prosecution, experts in money-laundering said.

Individual banks may have difficulty identifying which state-licensed businesses would run afoul of the federal guidance, said Peter Djinis, a former regulatory policy official with FinCEN, now in private practice in Florida.

“These complicated and vague policies continue the uncertainty that banks have in determining whether to take the risk of conducting financial transactions with otherwise legitimate marijuana businesses,” Djinis said.