José Mujica, Uruguay's president, whose advocates claim that his initiative of legalising marijuana in the country worked in favour of peace, has been declared as a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for 2014.

This is the second consecutive year when Mr Mujica is touted as a potential Nobel Peace Prize winner by the Drugs Peace Institute which has earlier supported his initiation of the legalisation of marijuana since 2012. The legalisation is based on the idea that marijuana consumption must be protected as one of the human rights.

AFPUruguay sees it as an alternative to the "war on drugs."

A total of 22 companies have submitted bids to supply marijuana under a law making Uruguay the first country to legalize production, sale and distribution of the drug, the government said Thursday.

Eight of them are Uruguayan, 10 foreign and the rest are joint ventures, said the newly created Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis.

Their product will be sold in pharmacies under the groundbreaking law approved in December.

The law's mastermind, former leftist guerrilla President Jose Mujica, says it is a way to circumvent traffickers and stop wasting resources in fighting them.

The government of Uruguay opened registration of cannabis clubs, a new phase of implementation of the law that regulates the self-cultivation and to be completed with the sale of marijuana in pharmacies on Thursday.

The IRCCA (Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis) "starts, from 10.30.2014, the first Record Club Membership" the statement said.

The law, passed in December last year, allows up to six cannabis plants per household (480 grams per year), registration of cultivation membership clubs with 15-45 members and a number of proportional plants began in August and with a maximum of 99.

Juan Manuel, owner of the first shop dedicated to cannabis merchandising in Montevideo, rolls a joint

Uruguay has started registering cannabis growers' clubs as part of the government's plan to legalise the drug.

Licensed clubs of up to 45 members will be allowed to grow a maximum of 99 plants each year.

In August, growing up to six plants of cannabis at home became legal.

Uruguay legalised the production and sale of cannabis last December and the government hopes to sell it from pharmacies in the new year.

A man waits to register at the post office. The new law allowed citizens and legal residents of Uruguay to register to legally grow marijuana at home, with a limit of six plants per home and 480 grams per year.

Crédito:

Desde hoy, aquellos interesados en formar clubes de cannabis podrán registrarse en Uruguay. El Instituto de Regulación y Control del Cannabis (IRCCA) "pone en funcionamiento, a partir del 30/10/2014, el primer Registro de Clubes de Membresía", señala un comunicado oficial del organismo.

Juan Palese, 25, stands outside the door of his Urugrow shop, sharing a red-tipped marijuana joint with a group of young friends. The sweet, pungent aroma of cannabis permeates the street as chattering students from Montevideo’s nearby school of social sciences walk heedlessly by.

“Two policemen live here, right next door,” Palese says with a mischievous look, leaning into the entrance of an old house next to his “grow shop”, where he sells fertilisers and compost for growing cannabis at home. Business is good, and a steady trickle of customers arrive throughout the afternoon.

Uruguayan National Party presidential candidate Luis Lacalle Pou gestures during a meeting with businessmen in Montevideo October 8, 2014.

Uruguay's leading opposition candidate said on Wednesday he would try to repeal much of the country's ground-breaking marijuana law, which permits the commercial production and sale of the drug, if he wins Sunday's presidential election.

The South American country became the world's first to allow the cultivation, distribution and use of marijuana, but almost two in three Uruguayans oppose the pioneering experiment that aims to wrest control of the trade from drug gangs.

Uruguay has launched the first-of-its kind legalization of marijuana, allowing residents who want to grow their own to sign up to do so.

But the new law, which comes with strict guidelines when it enacted in May, received a lukewarm welcome.

Juan Vaz, a well-known cannabis activist, told AP it was because of the years of illegal growing.

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"There are some people who might feel persecuted," Vaz said. "For many years, they grew plants in secret and it's hard to break from that way of thinking."

Under the new law, citizens and legal residents older than 18 can grow up to six female plants and annually harvest up to 480 grams.

Uruguay is the first country in the world to regulate the cultivation and sale of marijuana, AP reported.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's new market for legalized marijuana has attracted at least 20 companies bidding for the right to supply pot to the country's pharmacies, a government official said Thursday.

An official from President Jose Mujica's office says cannabis regulators will review and pick the best businesses from the competitors that passed initial scrutiny. It's not clear how many may eventually be granted licenses in the South American country.

The government official did not specify an exact number of bidders, saying only it was "more than 20 and less than 25." He spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

When the United States government is pathetically failing in attempts to justify its decades old war on cannabis, a country to the south is hard at work on nationalized legalization. In fact, the government in Uruguay is looking to sign up a few good pot growers!

Although it now appears that rollout of the legal Uruguay cannabis program won’t happen until 2015, they are still marching toward social justice at a much faster pace than the United States. When the delay in the establishment of the legal cannabis market in Uruguay was announced, the political prohibition pushers began predicting that the program was about to go “up in smoke,” but it looks like they were wrong.