The United Nations and the Vatican are expressing concern over Uruguay’s plan to assume control of growing and selling cannabis to registered users.

The lower house of Parliament passed the unprecedented plan to license and enforce rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for adult consumers, creating the world’s first legal marijuana market.  Passage in the senate is expected.  The idea is to strip the drug gangs of their control over an illicit trade, taking away their income and reason to exist.

The UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) says the law would “be in complete contravention to the provisions of the international drug treaties to which Uruguay is party”, specifically the 1961 “Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs”.  And the treaty must be working, because marijuana use has totally decreased since the 1960s, right?

Pope Francis last week in Brazil said the “liberalization of drugs, which is being discussed in several Latin American countries, is not what will reduce the spread of chemical substances.” 

But not all of officialdom is opposing the innovative plan.  The secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Inzulza, told Mujica last week his members had no objections.  And a  group of former presidents and influential social figures, including Brazil's Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo and Colombian ex-leader Cesar Gaviria, have called for marijuana to be legalized and regulated.