Uruguay could be the world’s first marijuana republic
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
I thought Morales in Bolivia was doing something with coca production?
You should read about Switzerland's policy on heroin. Special clinics, perscriptions, available clean needles everywhere, professional staff (and AFAIR many members of public facing professions) medically trained to perform injections in case an addict needs one but isn't phisically able to do it himself, etc. Somebody who knows better can probably expand on the details, but there's a complex multi-layer policy on drugs, from prevention and harm reduction to quality control.
Ironically, smoking joints is technically illegal and the latest try to do it didn't pass the referendum, however, the fines aren't that drastic according to wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_Switzerland
1) Drugs for recreational activities such as tobacco and alcohol have very well known harmful effects, even when consumed in small dosis.
2) There are 0 annual casualties from the use of Marijuana, you just can't overdose to death on it, and it has lots of medical and non-medical uses.
Can someone tell me why it was criminalized in the first place?
I think smoking pot in the morning is as bad an habit as watching 3h/day TV. In the sense that I would shoot at him if my little brother did one of those. Ago the argument for decriminalization should be more in the line of: let people choose their bad habits.
(2) Hemp fiber was a serious competitor to synthetic fibers being produced by chemical companies.
(3) Henry Ford had built a car entirely out of hemp, and then used hemp as the fuel for the car in order to demonstrate how viable the product could be for the automotive industry (which threatened big oil).
(4) Harry J. Anslinger & William Randolf Hearst and their support from dupont, big pharma, the timber industry, and their control of the media and representation in politics.
There's really so much to the story that it's nearly impossible to write it all down in one place, but it's a subject that's definitely worth researching.