Legalize marijuana or leave its crimes and corruption?

On January 4, 2014 President of the World League "Mind Free of Drugs", full member of the World Federation for Mental Health, MD, Prof. Jenishbek Nazaraliev shared his thoughts with the readers of his page on a social network "Facebook" that Kyrgyzstan can legalize marijuana. As an experiment, Professor Nazaraliev offered to do it in the Issyk-Kul region, which is known for its hemp plantations, use binder for textile industry and for the production of marijuana and drug exports to neighboring countries. News hit the pages of the leading Russian, Kazakh, European, American and other publications.

To date, the Administration of the Issyk-Kul region and representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Service for Drug Control KR, sufficiently have the resources to monitor a limited number of places in Issyk-Kul where hemp is grown for the production of the drug. However, Kyrgyzstan remains an exporter of " Tyup " and " Issyk-Kul " marijuana , which is well known as connoisseurs of soft drugs in Kazakhstan, Russia and Eastern Europe . This is due to the imperfect system and restrictive laws.

Based on the "folk" sociology as the State Statistical Committees does not provide any relevant information on the issue. Professor Nazaraliev believes that every fifth youth is using or has tried marijuana. In the U.S., for example, the figure is 51% of respondents aged 18 to 35 years. From what we can conclude is that, it is not much different in Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, the police use this as a "base" to raid and collect "tax" on the use of marijuana. Presumably every sixth marijuana smokers in Kyrgyzstan have faced a situation where the representatives of law enforcement agencies extorted money from him or her for the purpose of carrying drugs.

But despite struggling with the production, distribution and use of this drug without harm, marijuana continues to grow in sales and number of smokers. It is said that marijuana is included in the “black” economy, and there is a high profit from it, which due to corruption and the risk of collision with the law, goes into the pockets of criminals and corrupt officials. Professor Nazaraliev believes that Introducing marijuana as legal and legally regulating the turnover will help eliminate corruption in this region and increase efficiency of state control over all production links to marijuana use.

Professor Nazaraliev offers to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational purposes. On the basis of cannabis is produced in dozens of the world expensive drugs against cancer and aging skin to conventional cosmetic means. In particular pharmaceuticals production on the basis of cannabis developed in Israel, Australia and India. Recreational marijuana use, in turn, may be less popular than applying for the same purpose of alcohol. Nevertheless, the state will get opportunity to earn on excise duties with the sale of marijuana. In addition, Kyrgyzstan may raise its textile industry due to hemp products, which can be obtained from it.

Professor Nazaraliev offers licensing of farmers engaged in hemp plantations. Issue licenses for the sale of marijuana in specialized shops or cafes. Give police powers to control outlets and check the license. State Service on Drug Control under this should oversee the plantations and to prevent "black" export to other regions of Kyrgyzstan, except Issyk-Kul, and neighboring countries.

This has to be decided as soon as possible for at the end of January 2014, there are investors in Las Vegas ready to invest in the cultivation and production of marijuana. It is too early to talk about the market volume, but the trend for legalization in developed countries and under support legalization, 52 % of U.S. residents said that this is a promising commercial direction in which Kyrgyzstan can earn big money legally exporting high-quality marijuana to United States, when the legalization movement covers most states and developed countries. If kept from the public, the volume of hemp production will remain in Kyrgyzstan, and the profit from illegal export will be received by individuals in the law enforcement and executive authorities, as is the case today.

Existing status quo today in Kyrgyzstan regarding marijuana is called "black" economy. Thus, the legalization of marijuana is a minimization of the harmful shadow schemes with drug development opportunities for pharmaceutical cluster in Kyrgyzstan, the textile industry and the prospect of trade relations with the countries consuming marijuana. The final decision for or against the legalization, according to Professor Nazaraliev should be made by the citizens in the national referendum on the legalization of marijuana.