Uruguay Legalizes Chamba (Marijuana)

The Uruguayan senate has voted in favour of legalizing the trade and consumption of Marijuana, essentially making the South American nation the world’s first national marketplace for legal Marijuana.
A large number of countries have in recent times decriminalized Marijuana but this is the 1st time that a government has stepped in to legalize Marijuana and regulate its trade. President José Mujica pressed on with plans to create government-run legal marijuana industry to combat criminals. Mujica is convinced the global drug war is a failure and feels bureaucrats can do a better job of containing addictions and beating organized crime than police, soldiers and prison guards.

Malawi’s Billion Kwacha Marijuana Market
Speaking earlier in the year Ras Judah, of Malawi’s Rastafarian for Unity, made fresh calls for Marijuana to be legalized in the country. He reasoned that the trade would be for the benefit of all. He went on to further claim that top government officials in the country are already engaged in the trafficking of mass amount of Marijuana in the SADC region.
Malawi’s Marijuana is said to be highly potent and fetches premium prices on the global market. The World Bank had earlier indicated that the street value of Malawi’s Marijuana was equal to 0.2% of the country’s GDP in 2011.
Despite this, Malawi growers, mostly in central and northern regions, are getting peanuts out of this illicit trade because the product, described by the World Bank as the “best and finest” in the world, is exported informally with Malawi losing out.
“Since Malawi farmers receive only about a fifth of the price for which it is being sold in foreign consumer markets, the positive effect of the production of marijuana on the overall Malawi economy is negligible,” the report said.