Published time: August 02, 2014 11:53
Edited time: August 02, 2014 19:27

AFP Photo / Miguel Rojo

Uruguay’s authorities have called on private pot growers to send in applications if they want to farm the plant in a government-run field as the country is taking a step closer to selling recreational drug.

The tender was issued from the Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA), a newly formed governmental body which oversees the marketplace for marijuana. Open until August 18, it seeks up to five cannabis farmers who will get a license allowing them to grow the plant at a government-run field.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — A group has taken steps to become the first officially recognized marijuana-growing club in Uruguay, where lawmakers have made their country the world's first national marketplace for legal pot.

The Association of Cannabis Studies of Uruguay began the process by registering with the Education and Culture Ministry, Drug Control Chief Julio Calzada said Tuesday.

The club will have 40 members and will be headed by Laura Blanco. She told the Uruguayan newspaper El Pais that members will pay $300 each to join, and a monthly fee of up to $65. Some of the members will use the marijuana to treat medical conditions.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — The biggest threat to Uruguay's new legal marijuana market has lost his party's presidential primary.

Sen. Jorge Larranaga had been a favorite to represent the National Party this year and strongly opposes the new law, which puts the ruling Broad Front government at the center of a regulated marijuana industry. The government's aim is to defeat organized crime by producing cheaper, better, legal weed and selling it in pharmacies to registered adults.

"We are going to overturn this law that legalized marijuana growing. Nobody plant anything! Don't plant anything because we're going to knock it down!" Larranaga had said ahead of Sunday's primary.

On April 1, Uruguay's legalisation of marijuana, the very first among the world, takes effect. To prepare for the influx of demand, the small South American nation has taken its sights on Canada to fill in the gaps.

Ratified in December 2013, Uruguay legalised the growing and selling of marijuana as a source of revenue. Uruguay residents may grow six marijuana plants in their homes per year, or as much as 480 grams (about 17 ounces). Smoking clubs with 15 to 45 members can grow up to 99 plants per year.

However, cultivation processes and operations take time way beyond the four months since the bill was thumbed up by the Uruguay Senate.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — More than 100 businesses are hoping to compete for the right to grow the marijuana that Uruguay's government will sell in its newly legalized pot market, the country's drug czar said Thursday.

Drug secretary Julio Calzada said that the government can satisfy demand in the legal pot market it's launching this year by licensing two to six growers to cultivate the plants on plots no larger than 5 acres (2 hectares).

Successful bidders will have to identify everyone involved in their businesses, document the source of their financing and be cleared by Uruguay's anti-money laundering agency. These controls are needed to keep out organized crime, Calzada said.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — President Jose Mujica says Uruguay's legal marijuana market will be much better than the system in Colorado, which doesn't track the drug after sale. And he says the medical marijuana laws many U.S. states have adopted are based on "hypocrisy" because they enable people to fake illnesses to get prescription weed.

Mujica also predicted Friday that Uruguay's system will be much tougher on drug users, and more effective in combatting illegal drug trafficking.

Mujica, who will visit President Barack Obama in the White House on May 12, says his government will license and regulate the entire marijuana business, enforcing pot possession rules as well as limits on production and sales so that violators get punished and addicts get help.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's government is still writing the rules for its legal marijuana market, two weeks overdue now, and President Jose Mujica has asked that no details be released until the regulations are published Friday or Monday.

But an official in Uruguay's drug control office said that the rules will limit consumers to buying 10 grams of pot a month, rather than the maximum of 40 grams set by legislators. The official said that is aimed at reducing the illegal resale of marijuana that will be sold by pharmacies.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay's drug czar says every legal marijuana plant in Uruguay will be registered and tracked using radio frequency tags, and that state-grown marijuana will be cloned to include genetic markers, making sure that what's grown here, stays here.

That's a much tougher tracking system than those imposed in Colorado and Washington, which recently legalized marijuana use. Unlike those U.S. states, Uruguay wants authorities to be able to test the pot in any drug user's possession to determine if it came from a registered, legal source.

People wait outside the Parliament building while lawmakers pass the bill legalising marijuana, in Montevideo last week. The new bill aims to put the government in charge of the marijuana industry. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

URUGUAY wants to make a "contribution to humanity'' by legalising marijuana but will backtrack if the "experiment'' goes awry, President Jose Mujica has said.

Mr Mujica said he sees his country as a potential test case for an idea slowly gaining steam across Latin America - that the legalisation and regulation of some drugs could sap the cartel violence devastating much of the region.

Uruguayan scientists, taking advantage of their country's legalization of marijuana, will study the long-term effects of the drug on sleep

LEGAL IN URUGUAY. A picture made available on 10 December 2013 shows a plant of marijuana at a house in Montevideo, Uruguay, 05 December 2013. Pablo Nogueira/EPA

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – Uruguayan scientists, taking advantage of their country's legalization of marijuana, will study the long-term effects of the drug on sleep, a local newspaper reported.