|
Simplepowa
In Pursuit of Knowledge


Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 4,310
|
Guatemala Considers Legalizing Opium Growing for Medicinal Market
#19303413 - 12/20/13 03:14 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
by Phillip Smith, December 19, 2013, 07:26pm, (Issue #814)
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina and other government officials said repeatedly this week that they are considering legalizing and regulating opium poppy production in areas where it is already being grown illicitly.
"We started exploring the capacity that we could have for controlled planting," said Perez Molina. "What that means is that we would know exactly what extensions are being planted, what the production would be and that the sale would also be well controlled, especially for medicinal use."
Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said the government was considering both regulated legal cultivation and alternative development.
"There are two paths, one is cultivated substitutes, and the other is the alternative which is controlled cultivation," Lopez explained. "This is what is already being done in other countries such as India and China, that is to say identifying hectares clearly, seeing how they are grown, carrying out the harvest, taking control of the commercialization and above all making sure this serves mainly the pharmaceutical industry."
Lopez noted that Guatemalan security forces have had 25 years of experience eradicating opium poppies, but that the impact had been "relative."
Guatemalan poppy production is centered in the department of San Marcos, near the Mexican border.
According to the Guatemalan media outlet Prensa Libre, the idea is one of a number of drug reform proposals made to the government by Amanda Fielding of the Beckley Foundation, a British drug reform group that established an office in Guatemala last year.
Perez Molina has been a leading, vocal advocate of reassessing the global drug prohibition framework, especially as it applies to Latin America. But this is the first time his administration has hinted at a concrete "outside the box" proposal, even if only a little outside the box.
Guatemala
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2013/dec/19/guatemala_considers_legalizing_o
--------------------
Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." --- Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." --- Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."
|
Psilosopherr
A psilly goose



Registered: 02/15/12
Posts: 12,278
Last seen: 1 month, 10 days
|
Re: Guatemala Considers Legalizing Opium Growing for Medicinal Market [Re: Simplepowa] 1
#19303454 - 12/20/13 03:22 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
wow, the news from south america just keeps getting better
|
jboredone
Money-The root of all evil....



Registered: 01/19/12
Posts: 4,783
|
Re: Guatemala Considers Legalizing Opium Growing for Medicinal Market [Re: Psilosopherr]
#19305256 - 12/20/13 09:29 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
didn't read but i'd like a script for that......
-------------------- Peace Pot Micro-Dot God Loves You High or Not!!! In order to grow old and wise, you must once have been young and dumb!

|
illuminati
Strange


Registered: 06/17/07
Posts: 556
Loc: Aboard the T.A.R.D.I.S.
Last seen: 3 years, 4 months
|
Re: Guatemala Considers Legalizing Opium Growing for Medicinal Market [Re: Psilosopherr]
#19306560 - 12/21/13 06:25 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
rbalzer said: wow, the news from south america just keeps getting better 
Particularly from Guatemala. It would be just awesome if they become incredibly prosperous in the next few years. I would think it would bode well for the rest of the world.
-------------------- I didn't get turned on I just got turned I wasn't as aroused as I was concerned for each one of 'em I've hurt and every time I've been burned I've got a lot to teach but even more to learn
|
|