Matt Fecteau: Rhode Island, Uruguay, and Weed

Monday, June 08, 2015

Matt Fecteau, GoLocalProv Guest MINDSETTER™

I am currently in Uruguay, and it is an interesting experience. Uruguay doesn’t get a lot of tourists. There are more cows than people. Not too much to see, but in 2013, Uruguay did something seemingly incredible: it legalized recreational marijuana.

Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize pot. Unlike countries such as the Netherlands which merely decriminalized marijuana, Uruguay went for full legalization. With the new law, in theory, criminals no longer have a monopoly on the recreational marijuana market.

Typically, when a pot smoking hears the word regulation or legalization of marijuana, they lite up a joint in honor of liberty and freedom. Well, don’t lite up just yet. There are many flavors of this ice cream.

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Uruguay is not Colorado, and severe restrictions remain. A pot smoker has to register to smoke recreational marijuana. Marijuana can only be obtained by 1) growing up to six plants, 2) buying it from a pharmacy, or 3) form a club with a group of friends. Foreigners are prevented from buying marijuana.

In the shadow of the Uruguayan dictatorship, just like American citizens, many Uruguayans remain opposed to registering as pot smokers because of privacy and security concerns. In fact, Uruguay’s marijuana law is so intrusive; it looks like prohibition, and complements the black market instead of supplanting it.

The law is an improvement from the past, but still has many faults. The marijuana market is so regulated that law enforcement has a difficult time penalizing all the law breakers. The government calls it an experiment and their country a petri dish for marijuana reform internationally, but this experiment is so heavily controlled, and micromanaged that the law is only nominal in nature.

Uruguay’s recreational marijuana law varies greatly from the famous recreational marijuana law in Colorado. In Colorado, if an individual is 21 years or older and has a valid identification, they can purchase marijuana up to an ounce from a licensed dealer.

Uruguay’s leftist president at the time, Jose Mujica, felt that government regulation of the marijuana market was a way to stamp out some of the cartels’ influence.

The Uruguayan government does not cite freedom or economic incentives as a justification for marijuana regulation. As a result, the laws reflect that of a government more interested in undermining criminal activity than giving people liberty, though the invasive regulations dilute the potency of the law.

Rhode Island is still debating whether marijuana should be legal. This debate has been going on for far too long, and to be honest, we need to regulate marijuana already. Though the question is: what type of regulation?

Originally, Uruguayan supporters of marijuana regulation had liberal hopes in mind. However, to get marijuana regulation passed into law, they dialed down their hopes, and settled for another lighter shade of prohibition cloaked as a revolutionary idea – again, an improvement still.

In Rhode Island, the General Assembly is considering S 510/H 5777, the “Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act” which will regulate marijuana just like they do in Colorado. In a recent poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, 57% of Rhode Islanders support regulation of marijuana like alcohol (like alcohol is the important part).

Rhode Island’s General Assembly has a way of disguising the incremental as revolutionary by amending the hell out of it (e.g. Rhode Island’s Voter ID law). A savvy Rhode Island politician could modify the bill so much it looks more like another form of prohibition than actual, substantive regulation.

If the “Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act” is signed into law, will it look more like Colorado’s, or Uruguay’s? Hopefully the former.

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Matt Fecteau ([email protected]), of Pawtucket, lost to U.S. Rep. David Cicilline in last year’s Democratic primary. He is a former White House national security intern and United States Army veteran with two tours to Iraq

Related Slideshow: The Highest Marijuana Prices in 2015 in New England by State

Forbes.com recently released a graphic that looks at how much an ounce of marijuana costs in every state in America, as well as the District of Columbia. The national average is $324.

Below is a look at where New England states fall in the rankings, as well as where marijuana is the most expensive and least expensive nationally.