Uruguay considering pot farming on military land

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The Uruguayan military has no doubt been involved in at least a few anti-marijuana operations in their history, which makes the choice to possibly grow marijuana on military land pretty awesome.


Uruguay legalized the use, possession and cultivation of limited amounts of marijuana, as well as a government-run system for legal sales last year. Government officials say they hope to have the entire system up and running by 2015, and to do that they need to find some land to grow their outdoor crops this summer.
According to defense Minister Eleuterio Fernandez, the government is looking for anywhere from 25 to 49 acres of land to grow their crops. He pointed out that growing it on military land would mean that the crops have their own built-in security system.

Jose Mujica

“At any rate, we can guard the perimiters,” Fernandez told reporters this week.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica, who says he hasn’t ever used cannabis but nevertheless championed the law change as a way of ending the criminalization of his citizens and curbing at least one avenue of the drug trade, said growing on military land makes the most economic sense for the country.
“We try to use what we have,” Mujica told Uruguayan local paper La Tercera.
Government officials have said in the past that they hope to keep the price of cannabis to about $1 per gram at the retail level, and growing it naturally outdoors in bulk is certainly a good way to keep the costs down.
The new laws allow Uruguayans to purchase up to 40 grams of herb every month from local pharmacies authorized to sell ganja. Those who want to avoid paying for their pot can grow up to six plants at a time and keep up to 17 ounces at a time from their own gardens.
Officials with the Uruguayan government say they will release the details of the new program in April, but already there are some reports of medical companies expressing big interest in setting up shop where they can legally study and produce new pharmaceutical drugs based on the plant.

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