Outbreak of common sense in Uruguay

From The Daily Mail:

Uruguay could become the first country in the world to sell marijuana to its citizens as it attempts to fight a growing crime problem.

Under the plan, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana to adults who have registered on a government database - letting officials keep track of their purchases over time.

Minister of Defense Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro said the measure aims to weaken crime in the country by removing profits from drug dealers and diverting users from harder drugs.

I don't like the bit about the database, and by and large, cannabis is the sort of thing which can be best grown or imported and sold privately, but it's a huge leap in the right direction.

Having set a benchmark price (something below current street prices), the government would then ideally re-privatise the whole thing and levy taxes on producers to mop up the super-profits; the main thing is that the tax is not so high as to make illicit/unlicensed supply worthwhile on a large scale.