El Gobierno cubano confisca 14 fincas tras encontrar sembrados de marihuana y otras 'ilegalidades'

Diario de Cuba

La Delegación Provincial de la Agricultura en Sancti Spíritus confiscó tierras y bienes de 14 fincas tras encontrar sembrados de marihuana y otras ilegalidades, informó el fin de semana el periódico local Escambray.

Entre las fincas había dos otorgadas en usufructo —como parte de las medidas del Gobierno para intentar aumentar la producción de alimentos—, en el municipio de Taguasco. Las tierras pertenecían a la Cooperativa de Producción Agropecuaria Mártires de Granada, según la publicación.

En ellas, el Ministerio del Interior encontró 453.252 semillas de marihuana, 433 plantas y 395 tallos podados, indicó el reporte. Junto con las tierras fueron confiscados los bienes agropecuarios, tales como cultivos plantados, reses, equinos, turbinas y aperos de labranza.

El periódico señaló que cuatro ciudadanos, todos de Guantánamo y entre ellos los dos usufructuarios, están detenidos y bajo proceso penal "por tenencia o tráfico de drogas ilícitas".

Por otra parte, Escambray dijo que otros dos ciudadanos, naturales de Santiago de Cuba, fueron arrestados por comprar ilegalmente la finca a un campesino de la Cooperativa de Créditos y Servicios Fortalecida Ramón Pando Ferrer, en la zona Hoyos de Mursulí.

Ramón Gallo López, jefe de Inspección del Ministerio de la Agricultura en la provincia, dijo que un operativo de la Sección Antidrogas del Ministerio del Interior encontró en la finca 69.612 semillas de marihuana.

En este caso, también fue confiscada la tierra y el ganado bovino y equino inscrito a nombre del usufructuario, señaló el reporte. Agregó que uno de los detenidos "se encontraba en libertad condicional por un delito anterior de tráfico de drogas tóxicas".

Maylín Cardoso Caballero, subdirectora legal de la Dirección Provincial de la Vivienda, informó que las autoridades confiscaron asimismo dos inmuebles en la comunidad La Mulata, del municipio de Taguasco. Uno de ellos, en mal estado y donde fue encontrada la marihuana, fue demolido.

Además, expropiaron una casa en la calle Comandante Manuel Fajardo de la ciudad de Sancti Spíritus y dispusieron "su traspaso al fondo habitacional del Estado". Escambray dijo que en la vivienda oficiales del Ministerio del Interior "ocuparon picadura y semillas de marihuana a un ciudadano procedente de la región oriental del país", quien residía de forma permanente en Sancti Spíritus junto a su familia.

Ramón Gallo López dijo que, por otra parte, están en proceso la expropiación forzosa o extinción de usufructo 11 fincas ubicadas en los municipios de Jatibonico, Trinidad, Taguasco, Yaguajay, Cabaiguán y Sancti Spíritus, por su compraventa ilícita.

Medios de prensa oficiales de otras regiones del país han recogido también intentos de producir marihuana.

En Artemisa, el periódico local se refirió a un caso que involucró a directivos de la Empresa Provincial de Acueducto y Alcantarillado.

En su edición impresa del 4 de mayo, El Artemiseño se refirió a "recientes investigaciones en la Empresa Provincial de Acueducto y Alcantarillado, con directivos involucrados en hechos graves de corrupción, y violaciones en el uso de la tierra, por siembra de marihuana en posesiones de la Empresa Pecuaria Genética Los Naranjos".

La publicación no ofreció otros detalles.

Jurassic Marijuana Plant Brought Back To Life After 200 Million Years

City World News

A French team of scientists from the University of Paris fell upon an unlikely find when they gathered remnants of plant material buried deep into the permafrost of Antarctica in 2013. To their surprise, the recovered plant material contained intact seeds, but it is only months later that a team of paleobotanists took up the challenge of reviving the 200 million-year old plant and, to their own disbelief, succeeded.

It is not the first time an extinct plant has been brought back to life since a specimen of Silene stenophylla, a plant that has been extinct for over 30,000 years, was just brought back into existence in 2012 by Russian scientists, but it is definitely an incredible find as is thought to be of the Jurassic period, possibly estimated to be 200 million-years old.

It is also a mystery that tropical plants could have managed to grow on the Antarctica continent 200 million-years ago and the experiment could bring to light vital information about atmospheric conditions on Earth at the time, such as levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2).

The obvious question on most minds: how potent is this strain of Cannabis? One researcher did sample the plant and measurements said one hit is the equivalent of smoking four ounces of a normal strain of cannabis.

While it’s an important discovery, many are worried the ancient strain could get out of the lab and into the hands of marijuana growers.

The lab said while the drug will leave the user catatonic for two to five days, there is absolutely no risk of overdoes and the researches promise they will do everything within their power to keep the plants secure.

Mira como los cogieron: Cubanos cultivando marihuana en la Florida

AmericaTeVeCanal41

La Habana: Arrestadas tres personas por producir y vender marihuana

Diario de Cuba

La Policía allanó una vivienda del municipio capitalino Centro Habana y detuvo a tres personas que producían y vendían marihuana, informó el independiente Centro de Información Hablemos Press (CIHPRESS).

Las autoridades cubanas minimizan el alcance del tráfico de drogas en el interior de la Isla. Las informaciones oficiales no suelen mencionar este tipo de arrestos y se limitan a referirse a las detecciones de la Aduana en los puntos de entrada al país y a las capturas de recalos en las costas por parte de las tropas guardafronteras.

Según el periodista independiente Mario Hechavarría Driggs, quien citó una fuente que participó en el operativo y pidió el anonimato, los detenidos fueron una mujer y dos hombres.

Para allanar la vivienda, la Policía reclutó como testigos a dos militantes del Partido Comunista y tres miembros de los Comité de Defensa de la Revolución (CDR), indicó la fuente.

Añadió que en el registro se encontró en la vivienda un arma de fuego escondida en el falso techo. En el patio interior había plantas de marihuana y en el interior de la casa paquetes de cigarrillos listos para vender, además de dinero en moneda convertible (CUC).

Hechavarría Driggs dijo que el cigarro de marihuana se vende en las calles de la Isla a dos o tres pesos convertibles (entre 50 y 75 pesos cubanos) y se puede encontrar prácticamente en cualquier barrio de la capital.

Según el periodista independiente, otra droga muy consumida en Cuba es la piedra o crack (derivado de la cocaína), que se vende a cinco pesos convertibles (120 pesos cubanos) y se puede comprar en los centros nocturnos de La Habana.

Weed vending machine: Canada's first marijuana vending machine starts up

ITN

Pot Fuels Surge in Drugged Driving Deaths

NBC News.com

By Bill Briggs

During each shift at her drive-through window, once an hour, Cordelia Cordova sees people rolling joints in their cars. Some blow smoke in her face and smile.

Cordova, who lost a 23-year-old niece and her 1-month-old son to a driver who admitted he smoked pot that day, never smiles back. She thinks legal marijuana in Colorado, where she works, is making the problem of drugged driving worse — and now new research supports her claim.

"Nobody hides it anymore when driving," Cordova said. "They think it's a joke because it’s legal. Nobody will take this seriously until somebody loses another loved one."

As medical marijuana sales expanded into 20 states, legal weed was detected in the bodies of dead drivers three times more often during 2010 when compared to those who died behind the wheel in 1999, according to a new study from Columbia University published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

“The trend suggests that marijuana is playing an increased role in fatal crashes,” said Dr. Guohua Li, a co-author and director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University Medical Center. The researchers examined data from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), spanning more than 23,000 drivers killed during that 11-year period.

"Nobody will take this seriously until somebody loses another loved one."

Alcohol remains, by far, the most common mind-altering substance detected in dead drivers, observed in the blood of nearly 40 percent of those who perished across six states during 2010, the Columbia study notes. (That rate remained stable between 1999 and 2010.)

Cannabinol, a remnant of marijuana, was found in 12.2 percent of those deceased drivers during 2010, (up from 4.2 percent in 1999). Pot was the most common non-alcoholic drug detected by those toxicology screenings.

“The increased availability of marijuana and increased acceptance of marijuana use” are fueling the higher rate of cannabinol found in dead drivers, Li told NBC News.

Researchers limited their analysis to California and five others states where toxicology screenings are routinely conducted within an hour of a traffic death. They note that California allowed medical marijuana in 2004. Since then, California has posted “marked increases in driver fatalities testing positive for marijuana,” Li said.

"The number of deaths will grow," Cordova said. "I'm scared."

Minutes after the crash that killed Cordova's niece, Tanya Guevara, and Guevara's 5-week-old son, police arrested the driver who struck Guevara's car. Steven Ryan, then 22, admitted to smoking pot earlier that day, according to court records. Ryan later pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012.

 

Courtesy Cordelia Cordova

Tanya Guevara and her son, Adrian, were killed in 2010 when a driver, impaired after smoking marijuana, hit Guevara’s car head-on in Colorado.

That same year, Cordova testified before Colorado lawmakers about a proposed impairment limit for stoned drivers. Under Colorado law today, drivers who test positive for 5 nanograms per milliliter of THC — an active ingredient in marijuana — can be charged and punished as drunk drivers.

That law has not, however, led Howard Myers to feel safer on local roads. He, too, takes the issue personally: In 2002, his three children were seriously injured when their car was struck by a driver who, Myers said, had smoked marijuana a short time earlier. (A police record provided by Myers showed that oncoming driver was charged with vehicular assault). Myers' children were returning from school to their home near Colorado Springs.

All three now are adults and their injuries have become chronic, Myers said. His daughter, who was driving, receives physical therapy for neck and back pain. One of his sons is recovering from a traumatic brain injury. Another son had a leg partially amputated.

"The attitude here is it's safe," Myers said. "So more people are driving under the influence.”

“If the current trends continue, non-alcohol drugs, such as marijuana, will overtake alcohol in traffic fatalities around 2020.”

But marijuana can be detected in the blood for one week after consumption, perhaps leading chronic consumers to be wrongly arrested, critics of the law assert.

A separate study — also based on FARS data — found that in states where medical marijuana was approved, traffic fatalities decrease by as much as 11 percent during the first year after legalization. Written by researchers at the University of Colorado, Oregon and Montana State University, the paper was published in 2013 in the Journal of Law & Economics.

Those authors theorized pot, for some, becomes a substitute for alcohol. They cited a recent, 13-percent drop in drunk-driving deaths in states where medical marijuana is legal.

“Marijuana reform is associated with … a decrease in traffic fatalities, most likely due to its impact on alcohol consumption,” said Michael Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, a trade association in Colorado.

Overall, though, drugged driving is closing the gap with drunk driving.

The rate of traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for non-alcohol drugs climbed from 16.6 percent in 1999 to 28.3 percent in 2010, according to the Columbia study.

Among dead male drivers, 4.0 tested positive for narcotics in 2010, up from 2.2 percent in 1999. Among female drivers killed, 7.6 percent tested positive for narcotics, up from 4.3 percent.

“If the current trends continue,” Li said, “non-alcohol drugs, such as marijuana, will overtake alcohol in traffic fatalities around 2020.”

O'Reilly: Why Americans don’t like to be told what to do

Obama & pot

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

WASHINGTON.- El presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, opinó que fumar marihuana no es más peligroso que beber alcohol, pero reparó que de todas maneras es "una mala idea". Además, apoyó la legalización, aunque consideró que no es "la panacea".

"Como se ha documentado ampliamente, fumé marihuana de chico y lo considero un mal hábito y un vicio, no muy distinto a los cigarrillos que fumé de joven y durante buena parte de mi vida adulta", dijo en una entrevista a la revista New Yorker publicada ayer, que será difundida íntegramente en la edición del 27 de enero.

"No creo que [la marihuana] sea más peligrosa que el alcohol", agregó el presidente, que dijo que la ve menos peligrosa "en cuanto a su impacto en el consumidor individual".

"No es algo que anime a hacer y ya les he dicho a mis hijas [Sasha y Malia] que es una mala idea, una pérdida de tiempo, no muy saludable", señaló.

Asimismo, Obama denunció la desproporción en el arresto de jóvenes afroamericanos y latinos por cargos de posesión de marihuana.

"Los niños de clase media no van a prisión por fumar marihuana, pero los niños pobres sí. Y los niños afroamericanos y los niños latinos tienen más probabilidades de ser pobres y son menos propensos a disponer de recursos y apoyos como para evitar penas excesivamente duras", denunció.

"No deberíamos llevar a prisión mucho tiempo a jóvenes o consumidores individuales por algo que probablemente han hecho también los que escriben las leyes", completó.

Obama apoyó además la reciente legalización de la marihuana en los estados de Colorado y Washington. "Para una sociedad es importante evitar una situación en la que gran parte de la población haya en un momento determinado violado la ley y sólo una pequeña porción de ella sea castigada", consideró.

Pese a defender las nuevas medidas en esos estados, señaló que "aquellos que afirman que legalizar la marihuana es la panacea y que ello va a resolver todos los problemas sociales, probablemente exageran".

El uso de la marihuana con fines medicinales ha sido autorizado en 19 estados de Estados Unidos.

O'Reilly: Is America going to pot?

Uruguay aprobó la legalización de la marihuana

RunRun.es

www.nacion.com

El Estado tomará el control de la producción y distribución. Se permitirá el autocultivo, el consumo en clubes y la compra en farmacias con un límite mensual. Es el primer país del mundo en implementar la polémica medida

Tras más de 12 horas de debate, el Senado de Uruguay aprobó la regularización del mercado de la marihuana con 16 votos a favor y 13 votos negativos. Ahora, el proyecto deberá ser ratificado por el presidente José Mujica, impulsor de la medida.

“La guerra contra las drogas ha fracasado“, aseguró al presentar el proyecto el senador Roberto Conde, de la coalición gobernante de izquierda Frente Amplio, con mayoría parlamentaria, lo que  aseguró la aprobación del polémico texto.

El plan uruguayo, que va más allá que las flamantes legislaciones de los estados estadounidenses de Washington y Colorado o de países como Holanda o España, es una“respuesta ineludible” a este fracaso, consideró.

El legislador aseguró que el proyecto busca un equilibrio entre la libertad de las personas y el deber de velar por su salud, pero también una solución a la ”grotesca incongruencia jurídica” que implica que si bien el consumo de drogas no está penado en Uruguay, hasta ahora sí lo están su producción y comercialización.

El último fin de semana, Mujica pidió ayuda con el ”experimento de la marihuana”. “Habrá mucho para discutir y mucho para trabajar”, agregó el mandatario.

Asimismo, el presidente uruguayo reconoció que no espera que su iniciativa sea implementada en otros países del mundo. “No, no. Yo espero que nos den una mano y que aprendamos entre todos, porque esto no es instaurarnos como el país del fumo libre. No. No. Ésa no te la llevo. Esto es una plaga, como el cigarro, y te ofrezco legalmente una ración y si te pasas de la raya, te tengo registrado y te voy a tener que atender médicamente”, afirmó.

Por su parte, el Gobierno presentó, la última semana, la campaña Todo consumo de drogas  tiene riesgo, que advierte sobre las consecuencias negativas. En esa línea, el presidente uruguayo sostuvo que Uruguay “no va a ser un país de turismo de fumo libre que viene cualquiera y se puede fumar”.

El líder del Frente Amplio volvió a defender el proyecto de ley y remarcó, una vez más, la necesidad de desbaratar las bandas de narcotráfico.

“Partimos de lo siguiente: así como está la cosa, se lo dejamos regalado al narcotráfico. Y el narcotráfico tiene efectos más destructivos que la droga, porque nos pudre toda la sociedad“, aseveró.

En cambio, la oposición insiste en que el Gobierno no conseguirá su propósito de poner fin al narcotráfico. Incluso, durante el tratamiento de este proyecto en el Senado, el bloque opositor afirmó que la marihuana legal “ampliará el mercado”.

En ese sentido, la Organización de las Naciones Unidas reiteró al gobierno uruguayo, a través de la Junta Internacional de Fiscalización de Estupefacientes (JIFE), su preocupación por los efectos que tendría la legalización de la marihuana.

Fuente: Infobae

Only in Canada: Marijuana-smoking Mountie stirs the pot in Canada

Yahoo News

www.interaksyon.com

Ottawa (AFP) - A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer with a medical marijuana prescription for job-related stress provoked a national debate Thursday over whether he should be allowed to smoke in uniform.

Corporal Ronald Francis serves in Canada's New Brunswick province, and reportedly received a prescription for medical-grade marijuana on November 4.

He told Canada's public broadcaster CBC that he should be allowed to smoke joints while in uniform, but received a cool response from his bosses who fear tarnishing the RCMP's image.

Reactions poured in from across Canada both in support and against the corporal's plea, including from Attorney General Peter MacKay who said it would "set a very poor example for Canadians."

Cannabis advocates meanwhile said the case underscores the need for employers to better understand medical marijuana use.

Health Canada established regulations for accessing cannabis for medical purposes in 2001 after the courts struck down a broad prohibition of marijuana.

But it remains controversial.

Francis told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which aired video footage of him smoking a joint in his RCMP red serge, that pot has helped relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress related to 21 years on the job.

His prescription allows for three grams, or up to 15 joints, a day, though he said he does not typically smoke that much.

"I get up in the morning, have my coffee and the marijuana. I go at lunchtime, have a marijuana joint, and then again in the evening. That would be my medical regime. But that may change with my tolerance to THC. It may take two joints in the morning, I don't know," he said.

"I'm still functional," he added. "But your nervous system is relaxed, and that makes a big difference."

"I had to really make a moral decision about it. Because the RCMP and law enforcement, they seem so anti-marijuana, and that's a hard thing to overcome, so I had to make that decision for my own health. It wasn’t based on my career or anything."

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gilles Moreau meanwhile told the broadcaster that officers with a medical marijuana prescription can take their medication.

But he said they should not do so while in uniform in public.

"Definitely a member that has been prescribed medicinal marijuana should not be in red serge taking his medication," Moreau was quoted as saying.

"It would not be advisable for that member, it would not portray the right message to the general public, it's definitely not something we would support or condone."

The RCMP noted that Francis has been assigned to desk duty and does not carry a gun.

Canada's Trudeau smoked pot while an MP

Fox News

Canada's Liberal leader and strong candidate for prime minister, Justin Trudeau, admitted Thursday that he has smoked marijuana since being elected to parliament, after recently calling for legalizing its use.

The eldest son of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau told the Huffington Post that he smoked pot five or six times in his life, the first while on a trip to the Caribbean with university classmates and most recently three years ago with friends over for a dinner party while his children were staying overnight with their grandmother.

The admission was made in an interview with the news website, which was conducting a survey of Canadian lawmakers' drug habits.

"One of our friends lit a joint and passed it around. I had a puff," he said.

On previous occasions, "when the joint went around the room, I usually passed it around to the next person," he added. But "sometimes throughout my life, I've had a pull on it."

"Sometimes, I guess, I have gotten a buzz, but other times no. I'm not really crazy about it."

Trudeau was elected to parliament in 2008.

Earlier this year he was picked to lead and resurrect a party that held power for most of the last century but was relegated to the margins as the country's number three political force in the last election.

Polls now put Trudeau ahead of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and if the numbers hold until the next election, expected in 2015, the young Trudeau and his Liberals could form Canada's next government.

A self-described teetotaller, Trudeau has reportedly never smoked cigarettes and doesn't drink coffee.

He told the Huffington Post that he also once tried to smoke hashish at an Amsterdam caf?? but called it a "total disaster," and suspects friends may have slipped hallucinogenic mushrooms into his spaghetti once.

Trudeau also revealed in the interview that his late brother, Michel, was facing marijuana possession charges for a "tiny amount" of pot before his death in an avalanche in 1998 and that the experience influenced his decision to call for legalizing and regulating cannabis in hopes of eliminating criminal control of the pot trade and limiting teenagers' access to it.

"I'm not someone who is particularly interested in altered states, but I certainly won't judge someone else for it," Trudeau said. "I think that the prohibition that is currently on marijuana is unjustified."

Main opposition New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair told the Huffington Post that he also has smoked pot but refused to say when. The prime minister's office said Harper's asthma prevented him from ever trying cannabis.

Canadian police chiefs earlier this week urged a legislative change that would allow them to hand out fines for small amounts of pot possession instead of laying criminal charges, in order to reduce policing and court costs, and to do away with such convictions affecting Canadians' travel, employment and citizenship.

An estimated one million Canadians regularly smoke marijuana, according to the latest surveys.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/22/canada-trudeau-smoked-pot-while-mp/#ixzz2cvXEGrY1

Marijuana Inc, Inside America's Pot Industry [Documentary]

MrStemroach

From 'dude' to dividends: the budding industrialization of pot

NBC News.com

www.columbian.com

The pot industry isn’t being cultivated with grow lights behind blacked-out windows anymore. Despite federal drug-enforcement and tax laws that render it illegal — and hard to turn a profit as a mainstream business — the economics of pot are becoming closer to what one advocate dubs “Big Marijuana.”

“It’s been an industry for a long, long time. It’s just been an underground industry,” said Jeffrey A. Miron, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University.

Pot has a trade association, and is planning its third annual lobbying day in Washington, D.C., for this week, signaling that the industry is growing up, said Betty Aldworth, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association.

"The most interesting thing about what’s happening to the marijuana marketplace right now is it’s moving from the underground to essentially being just any other commodity that’s sold in a regulated market," she said. "So you’re going to see the same kind of business and political functions that happen with any other product."

And it’s not just the activists taking an interest: Hedge funds and venture capitalists are starting to see the potential pot offers as a business opportunity in spite of occupying a legal gray area.

Private equity and venture capitalists bring expertise raising money, making money and lobbying for the interests of their business in the political arena, said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of The Drug Policy Alliance. “More and more of the players ...are coming out of the hedge fund world, the real estate world,” he said, and applying the same skills they’ve used to grow other industries.

“This experiment in democracy that’s taking place in Washington and Colorado is going to continue to evolve in other states... it’s just a matter of time and waiting for the federal government and bureaucrats and politicians to catch up to the changing tide of American public opinion,” predicted Brendan Kennedy, CEO of private-equity firm Privateer Holdings, which focuses on the marijuana industry.

“It’s a mainstream product and our investors see that, and they also see it’s inevitable that it will be legalized and it’s inevitable that there will be a real industry,” Kennedy said.

There is a broader cultural shift under way. Americans’ attitudes about marijuana are changing, a survey published last month by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found. For the first time, a majority of Americans support legalizing pot. Half of Baby Boomers and roughly two-thirds of millennials say marijuana should be legalized, and just under half of Americans say they’ve tried it.

“You do have a lot of people saying the genie’s out of the bottle despite what the federal government does,” said Chris Walsh, editor of Medical Marijuana Business Daily.

Professional investment capital means the industry can shed 'stoner' stereotypes and tie-dye clichés, Kennedy said, and start implementing quality standards, cohesive marketing and branding strategies and industry-wide leadership.

“It’s still an industry that’s remarkably young,” Kennedy said. Pot is a fragmented, decentralized business with very little standardization — not unexpected, in a field where entrepreneurs can get their start palming baggies at music festivals.

Former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively wants to turn pot into a national, branded commodity in one fell swoop. Last Thursday, Shively held a news conference in Seattle, accompanied by former Mexican President Vicente Fox, to announce that he is raising $10 million in start-up capital to build a chain of retail marijuana stores, a down payment on what he said would be a $100 million investment in three years.

“Yes, we are Big Marijuana," Shively said. He outlined a plan to build a national brand of retail marijuana stores, which would be supplied by regulated trade with Mexico.

If Shively found pot’s illegal status to be a bit of a buzzkill, he didn’t show it. “We believe the writing is on the wall that marijuana will become legal in the entirety of the U.S. in the next decade or so,” says the website of Shively’s firm, Diego Pellicer.

Shively’s announcement came two days after Colorado’s recreational-use legislation officially became law. As voters in more states pass referendums legalizing medicinal and, less commonly, recreational pot use, states are interested in the revenue potential that could come from legalizing and taxing marijuana.

A report published last month by the Colorado Futures Center at Colorado State University said recreational pot use in the state is a $605.7 million market that will generate $130.1 million in state tax dollars for fiscal year 2014-15.

In 2010, Miron estimated that, nationwide, pot could generate $8.7 billion in federal and state tax money annually if it were taxed like other “vice” products such as alcohol and tobacco.

But he is skeptical that Big Marijuana is on the horizon in the immediate future. “I think a lot of people are putting the cart before the horse,” Miron said. “It’s still an illegal commodity.”

Starting a pot business even in states where it’s legal is an uphill battle. Aldworth said 1980s-era tax code legislation prevents marijuana dispensaries, even in states where they operate legally, from being able to deduct many of the standard expenses other small businesses can. And since banks or credit unions generally won’t work with them, pot businesses are cash operations, without the access to financing sources other businesses take for granted.

Pot might have been the catalyst behind Harold and Kumar’s fateful trip to White Castle, but when it comes to making pot as ubiquitous as fast food, “It’s going to be a lot harder than some people make it sound,” Walsh said.

“It will really depend how the federal government responds,” he said.

But even if early efforts like Shively’s fail to bear fruit, Walsh said, “This is a good thing for the industry.” It attracts the interest of the investment community, and “it is starting the conversation,” he said. “People have been talking about a tipping point for years. They could be right this time.”

Iran plans to legalize marijuana

Follow The Money

http://dailycurrant.com/2012/12/14/iran-plans-legalize-marijuana/

The Iranian government announced Thursday that it plans to legalize marijuana for both medical and personal use, according to state media.

Iran’s parliament approved a bill that would allow Iranian citizens to purchase up to 2 ounces of marijuana from private, state-licensed stores and cafés.

The proposed law taxes marijuana up to 25 percent. Commercial marijuana growers would need to apply for a permit from the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture.

Middle East experts say the proposed law is unusual for Iran, an Islamic theocracy that has been governed by a highly conservative clerical elite since 1979. Under Islamic law, the country strictly forbids alcohol and drug consumption.

But the law is endorsed by ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has championed the measure as a way to cut down on Iran’s prison population and to bring in extra revenue to the country, which has experienced a prolonged economic crisis because of economic mismanagement and international economic sanctions.

“Iran’s prisons are filled with thousands of people who have been arrested and imprisoned for possession of what is, quite frankly, a harmless plant,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told the state-run IRIB television. “It doesn’t make sense to spend our resources imprisoning such people when other serious crimes, such as the consumption of alcohol or women disobeying their husbands, are happening each day.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad said the measure will bring an important economic boost for the country’s agricultural sector and raise much-needed revenue for the state through the collection of permits and taxes.

“I was quite impressed when I visited the cannabis coffee shops in Amsterdam (Netherlands),” he said. “I thought, ‘Our country’s soils are quite suitable for the cultivation of marijuana, so why not grow it here and sell it in our coffee shops?’ The evil Western countries have made life in Iran difficult through the sanctions, so marijuana will help our people forget their troubles and relax.”

Mujica: la marihuana merece “más respeto y conocerla mucho más”

BBC

Pero si se aprueba un proyecto de ley que han redactado legisladores oficialistas, es posible que en un futuro el Estado que encabeza Mujica deba regular la producción y venta de esa droga a consumidores.

Si bien el mandatario asegura que "era más bien contrario" a esa legalización, él mismo terminó impulsando la idea de legislar.

"Lo de México me sacudió el alma", indica Mujica en alusión a la violencia desatada en ese país por los carteles del narcotráfico.

En una entrevista con BBC Mundo en la chacra donde vive en las afueras de Montevideo, afirma que incluso en Uruguay, un país de 3,3 millones de habitantes con menores índices de violencia que sus vecinos, han aparecido fenómenos "como el ajuste de cuentas" vinculados al negocio de la droga.

"Lo que me asusta es el narcotráfico, no la droga", sostiene. "Y por la vía represiva es una guerra perdida: se está perdiendo en todas partes".

Mercado regulado

Legisladores opositores uruguayos han expresado su rechazo a la legalización de la marihuana.

El proyecto de ley, que este martes fue presentado a la bancada de diputados del gobernante Frente Amplio y el jueves se presentará a la oposición, propone que el Estado uruguayo regule la producción, distribución y venta de cannabis en el país.

También admite que particulares lo cultiven para su propio consumo, según redactores del texto.

Mujica dice que su intención es evitar que los consumidores de marihuana traten con vendedores que los inducen a probar pasta base de cocaína, una droga que, asegura, "está pudriendo a la muchachada común y corriente y la más pobre".

"Además me envenena, porque cada vez tengo que gastar más plata en policía, en cárceles y en las consecuencias. Y no tengo plata para atender a los enfermos", le comentó a BBC Mundo.

Su idea respecto a la marihuana, cuenta, es identificar "cuando el tipo se pasa de la raya y decirle: 'm'hijo, usted se tiene que internar o hay que cuidarlo'. Y no tenerlo en el mundo clandestino y tratar como a un delincuente a un tipo que tiene una adicción y en el fondo tiene una enfermedad. No le puedo regalar enfermos al narcotráfico".

"País pacato"

Pero admite que su propuesta genera resistencias en la sociedad uruguaya.

"Uno le dice a la gente 'regularizar la marihuana' y te empiezan a mirar, ¿no? Como (si fuera) una cosa del diablo""

José Mujica, presidente de Uruguay

"Uruguay es un país pacato, de viejos. La mayoría somos viejos y de tendencia conservadora. Uno le dice a la gente 'regularizar la marihuana' y te empiezan a mirar, ¿no? Como (si fuera) una cosa del diablo".

"Es todo una exageración. En realidad el cannabis tuvo que ver con el descubrimiento de América. El cannabis se usaba para hacer las velas (y) para hacer estopa de tapar las hendijas de los barcos. Ha acompañado toda la epopeya en el Nuevo Mundo. Merece que lo tratemos con más respeto y conocerlo mucho más", dijo.

"Estamos luchando contra el prejuicio", indica. "Esto tampoco se puede instrumentar pasándole por arriba al país".

Legisladores opositores han expresado su rechazo a la iniciativa oficialista, que sin embargo podría ser aprobada con los votos del gobernante Frente Amplio, una coalición de izquierda que tiene mayoría parlamentaria.

Hasta ahora la ley uruguaya permite el consumo de marihuana pero prohíbe su comercialización.

40 gramos mensuales

Mujica alega que la vía represiva es una guerra perdida.

El proyecto de ley plantea crear un organismo que regularía el mercado local de cannabis y definiría con el gobierno si dará licencias al Estado o a particulares para producir, distribuir y vender la droga, dice el diputado oficialista Sebastián Sabini a BBC Mundo.

El texto prevé un máximo de venta de 40 gramos mensuales por adulto registrado para comprar y también admite el cultivo para consumo individual en casas (hasta seis plantas por hogar) y clubes (con hasta 15 miembros y hasta 90 plantas).

Mujica sostiene que sería posible "hacer trazabilidad" de la marihuana que venda Uruguay para evitar que el producto sea exportado a otros países.

"Yo le puedo vender a usted equis cigarrillo y si eso aparece en Brasil yo a usted lo hago responsable", señala Mujica.

"No queremos joder a los vecinos (...) ni puedo permitirme el lujo de que vengan los pichicateros (drogadictos) de por ahí a dársela acá. ¡No, estamos fritos con eso, porque sería de nunca acabar!"

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