The new law for legal use of Marijuana for registered Uruguay citizens will be implemented by April of next year, reports the BBC.
Senators finally decided to give the consent for the government-sponsored bill proposed by the left-wing President Jose Mujica.The bill was approved on Tuesday after debating for nearly 12 hours as many senators were against the bill, it finally came down to 16 votes to 13 before it got passed.
The government decided to pass the bill as a way to controlling the growing number of drug associations in the country.
The Uruguayan Congress felt that they had failed in bringing the “war” on drugs to an end, as Senator Roberto Conde said it was an unavoidable response to reality.
Mr Conde also said “We have the duty as the sales to give a specific answer to an open territory, small and non-producing” Drug associations are smuggling drugs from the borders of Uruguay into the neighbouring countries, Mr Conde added.
One of the Senators of the opposition was Alfredo Solari who said that Uruguay should not allow its people to become human “experiments” of marijuana.
"This project envisages a social engineering experiment and respects none of the ethic safeguards of experimentation on human beings, and these are important in the case of a substance like marijuana, which causes damage to human beings," Senator Solari told Reuters news agency.
As the bill attracted a lot of criticism both at home and internationally, INCB decided to step in.
According to INCB, The International Narcotics Control Board which is a separate group founded by UN as a way to observing compliance of countries associated with international drug contracts.
They cautioned the Uruguay government that the new law would "be in complete contravention to the provisions of the international drug treaties to which Uruguay is party".