In the blink of an eye, global debates about cannabis regulation have shifted from “whether” to “how.” In 2014, Uruguay became the first nation to explicitly regulate cannabis from seed to sale. Its preferred strategy? State-regulated production, cannabis clubs, and personal growing. Meanwhile, four U.S. states and the District of Columbia have moved ahead with legal regulation, Colorado and Washington being the first, and the federal government seems unlikely to intervene. More states, possibly even California, look set to follow. Likewise, in the rest of the world, there are a number of gray-area regulatory systems, including in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain. All offer insights into how the United States—and other countries—might tackle the “how.”

THE AMERICAN MODEL

Also, in his opinion, the Uruguayan law is better formulated compared to that of the Netherlands, since in the South American country the state regulates from production to marketing cannabis.

"Our results show that when a substance is legalized, people are more likely to consume and that can affect productivity," he told Efe this professor of Economics at the University of Maastricht.

Data were collected before and after implementation of a policy in 2011, which happened to allow only Germans, Belgians and Dutch could buy cannabis in the Dutch city of Maastricht.

"One of the effects we saw is that 5% was more likely to pass all courses," said the academic, compared to students of other nationalities in college, which became no legal access to marijuana.

(Bloomberg) -- Recreational pot will hit pharmacy shelves in Uruguay as President Tabare Vazquez moves to fully implement a sweeping cannabis law signed by his predecessor, a senior government policy maker said.

“The law is going to be implemented and we are going to end up selling marijuana in the pharmacies like the law says,” Milton Romani, secretary-general of the National Drugs Board, said in an interview Thursday.

Wedged between Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay became the first country in the world to regulate cannabis for recreational, medicinal and industrial uses in December 2013. Former President Jose “Pepe” Mujica pitched the measure to Uruguayans as a way to allow legal growers to undercut a black market that government estimates put at about 22 tons a year.

Uruguay's new president has pledged to continue the marijuana legalization policies left by his predecessor, but has also decided to postpone the implementation of public sales of cannabis, a key part of outgoing president Jose "Pepe" Mujica's weed legalization plan.

With just a few days in office, Vázquez is moving more cautiously on the revolutionary law aimed at completely regulating the production and sale of marijuana in the small South American nation.

The United Nations has renewed its warnings to Uruguay and the US states of Colorado and Washington that their cannabis legalisation policies fail to comply with international drug treaties.

The annual report from the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board, which is responsible for policing the drug treaties, said it would send a high-level mission to Uruguay, which became the first country to legalise the production, distribution, sale and consumption of cannabis for recreational purposes.

The UN drug experts said they would also continue their dialogue with the US government over the commercial sale and distribution of cannabis in Colorado and Washington state.

“This man is a guru,” says journalist Uki Goñi, “He's the head of state that refuses to dress in the pomp and ride in a limousine."

Mujica never occupied the presidential palace, he has never driven around in chauffeured limousines, rather, the 79-year-old head of state continues to live in his own country house 20 minutes outside of the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo and continues to drive around in his old, beat-up Volkswagen Beetle.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — As this country's remarkable legal marijuana experiment continues to unfold, an unexpected detail has emerged: It could cost more for cancer patients to buy weed for pain relief than for plain old stoners getting high just for fun.

Citing Uruguay's drug czar Julio Calzada, El Observador newspaper reported on Feb. 6 that medical marijuana will cost more than recreational weed.

A National Drug Council spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that cannabis grown in Uruguay for medicinal uses — like treating pain and nausea caused by chemotherapy, or helping boost appetites for HIV/AIDS patients — will cost more than recreational pot.

South American country plans to issue as many as five permits to grow cannabis

MONTEVIDEO — Canadian medical-marijuana producer Tilray and the founder of a German cannabis products retailer are among 11 investors bidding for a foothold in a formerly illegal industry in Uruguay: marijuana farms.

Once the government issues the licences, pot could reach pharmacies in three to four months, said Alfredo Dupetit, a partner in Montevideo, Uruguay-based bidder Lucus SRL.

Pharmacies will then be able to sell as much as 40 grams (0.1 pound) of pot a month, enough for about 60 joints, to registered users, the government has said.

The Latin American and Caribbean Center and the Universidad Católica del Uruguay have partnered to conduct a research project on the legalization of marijuana and the transformation of drug policy.

In 2013, Uruguay passed a bill regulating the production, distribution and consumption of marijuana. For Jose Miguel Cruz, director of research at the university’s LACC, this was the ideal situation for an experiment.

“The point of the project was not to advocate, or oppose, the legalization of marijuana,” Cruz said. “We really want to know, in terms of policy, what happens when you change your approach toward drugs.”

MOSCOW, December 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Foreign Ministry says it regrets Uruguay’s decision to legalize marijuana. Growing, selling and consumption of cannabis for recreational purposes was signed into law by president Jose Mujica on December 24.

“This step has caused a sharply negative response from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the main body for supervision of compliance with international drugs control conventions,” the ministry said.

The board believed the new law contravened the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, confining cannabis consumption to scientific and medical purposes, Russia's statement said.