The tiny Latin American country of Uruguay just leapfrogged every nation on earth, becoming the world’s first sovereign nation to legalize the cultivation, sale and use of marijuana.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Juan Andres Palese was using a fake name in public when he opened Uruguay’s first store dedicated to cultivating marijuana, where he offered growing equipment and advice but no illegal plants or seeds.
Uruguay has become the first country in the world to make it legal to grow, sell and consume marijuana, but that doesn’t mean there will be cannabis cafes popping up on the streets of the capital or in the popular holiday resorts on the Atlantic coast.
Uruguay’s drug control chief, Julio Calzada, is a nervous man. As of Wednesday, he has just 120 days to deliver regulations controlling the world’s first national marijuana market.
Uruguay’s Senate gave final congressional approval Tuesday to create the world’s first national marketplace for legal marijuana, an audacious experiment that will have the government oversee production, sales and consumption of a drug illegal almost everywhere else.
