Leisure And Tourism Policy And Planning Essay.

Discuss about the Leisure and Tourism Policy and Planning.

Tourism refers to travelling for business purpose or for the purpose of pleasure. It also refers to the theory and practice of touring, and the business of attracting, entertaining and accommodating the tourists, and the business related to operating of tours. Tourism includes national and international tourism and has a great impact over the revenues of the nation. This is the reason why tourism industry holds significance for every nation. Steps are constantly taken by the governments of the nation to promote their tourism industry. Due to the magnitude of tourism industry, the same has been classified into different categories which include social tourism, leisure tourism, medical tourism, religious tourism, educational tourism, niche tourism and ecotourism.

A number of tourists travelling to South America often turn towards Uruguay. Uruguay means the river of colourful birds and the name is quite apt when it comes to the people relaxing in a cloud of glorious legal smoke. Back in December 2013, the nation legalized cannabis and became the very first nation in the world to have done so. As a result of this, the citizens of the nation, along with the registered residents who have lived in the nation for a period of minimum two years have the right of purchasing cannabis up to 10 grams for each week. For doing so, there is a need to legally purchase the cannabis after registering with the central database, and the purchase can be made from pharmacy, where such purchases are tracked in order to flag the individuals who try to purchase more than the limits assigned (Cannabis-Education, 2017).

A lot of factors were included in this policy, which includes the sale of marijuana not being legal to the tourists, but this policy has a shortfall, which will be discussed in this paper. Apart from this, the discussion will touch the various stakeholders which are affected due to this policy and what exactly this policy is. This is done in order to analyse the shortfalls in the policy which has been drawn in Uruguay and also the merits of this policy. For this purpose, the discussion would also touch the legalization of marijuana in other parts of the world. Before drawing the conclusion, the paper would cover some policy recommendations.

As stated in the introductory segment, Uruguay was the very first nation which legalized cannabis. Weed was legalized after the last president of Uruguay, Hose Pepe Mujica, who was an ex-urban guerrilla and had spent thirteen years in prison under the military dictatorship of the nation. The reason why such a small nation was able to shun the international drug laws, particularly of the United Nations, and implemented a futuristic law which is understood by the youth of present time, stems from the 80-year-old socialist president being bold and unafraid of the neurotic bureaucrats who continue to belie that the only way is to continue the way on drugs, which time and again has proved to be ineffective.  As a result of the vision of Pepe, the citizens of Uruguay were allowed to grow weed in their homes and also from the private growing clubs, up to a limit of 99 plants (Odessa, 2017). The distribution law passed by him allows the people to purchase from pharmacies up to a limit of 40 grams each month (GuruGuay, 2017). For commercial distribution, Iccorp and Symbiosys have been granted the licenses, which are the first government sanctioned weed farms. However, unlike Amsterdam, the tourists cannot purchase weed from dealers. And for this, there is a need to befriend the locals. But, the nation has amongst the nicest crowd in the entire world along with having excellent weed. Only the quality of weed is changed, which can be compared to that in Canada. Nearly every person in the nation is growing cannabis and a tourist can easily get the same as a gift (Odessa, 2017).

Stakeholders

The growing and distribution of marijuana in the nation is fully controlled by the Uruguayan national government. The reason why this policy does not become an unusual policy as the Uruguayan government not only controls but also regulates a number of aspects of the nation, which includes the public utilities and even the price of grocery staples, like milk. Though, the government of the nation is still working up on getting the marijuana distribution system to work. For this, there is a need for the pharmacies to have proper fingerprint recognition software which could be used for the identification purpose of the consumers. There is also a need for the pharmacies for securing their stock inside wall-mounted safety boxes, where every pharmacy would be given the permission to hold two kilos maximum on hand at any point of time. Another obstacle is that the government provided marijuana is still not ready for sale (Cannabis-Education, 2017).

Still, the people in the nation can grow up to six plants of marijuana. This limit is exploited by 14-15 people coming together and forming marijuana clubs which allows them to grow just under 100 marijuana plants. At the smoke shops, seeds are easily available and even though there is a shortfall in the supply of finished product, weed can be easily found in any part of the nation. Another normal aspect of this policy is that the consumption of marijuana in public is perfectly legal. Marijuana is given the same treatment as is given to tobacco. Any person who is above the age of eighteen is allowed to smoke marijuana in public and the same is just restricted to smoking inside of workplaces or enclosed public buildings. So, a person could smoke outside the restaurant but not inside it (Cannabis-Education, 2017).

Tourists coming in Uruguay are not allowed to buy marijuana and their purchase of weed from the dealers remains unlawful. This raises the question on how can marijuana be deemed as a tourist attraction and also on the presence of marijuana tourism culture in the nation. However, this law too has a big catch. Even though the tourists are not permitted to buy marijuana, they can still get the same as a gift. So, where a person can make friends who are ready to share their stash with the tourist, a person can get marijuana as gift. The law can also be taken advantage of by buying marijuana from a home grower, in lines with giving them something as a gift and getting in return the gift of marijuana (Cannabis-Education, 2017). This opens the channel gates of black market to take advantage of the law, which does continue to provide weed to tourists when the same is not allowed in a proper legal manner. Also, only the purchase of weed is unlawful for cash; once the same has been attained, the tourist is not faced with any problem. The shady part continues to be the permission of smoking anywhere. Uruguay has a beach lined coast where there are no shortage of great sports for stopping and melting into a stoned haze. This is coupled with the nation being located between Argentina and Brazil, due to which the nation gets a large musical influence from weed infused music jam nights or local drum, which allow a great atmosphere for getting blitzed (Andrew, 2017).

Each policy has a number of stakeholders who are directly and indirectly affected as a result of the formulation and implementation of such policy. The policy drawn in Uruguay also impacts different stakeholders. The first stakeholder group for this policy is the pharmacists in the nation, who have been made the source of getting weed in the nation legally. The next stakeholder group is the government, which is responsible for bringing out this policy and also establishing the channels through which weed can be legally purchased. They also aim to earn revenues from legalizing marijuana and making it legal to reduce the menace associated with drugs as a new approach of dealing with the issue. Another substantial stakeholder group is the tourists who visit the nation. Weed is used as a mode of promoting tourism in the nation and often this location is targeted by people visiting South America to take a smoke relief. The citizens become another crucial stakeholder group as there are groups which have welcomed this decision and another fraction who continue to oppose this policy. And the last stakeholder group is the neighbouring nations as they not only lose the tourists to Uruguay thus bringing down the revenues from tourism industry, but also have to face issues of border incidents, particularly when the people cross borders to obtain weed and sell it in the home nation. The impact on the different stakeholders is more broadly discussed in the next segment of this discussion.

When President Mujica finalized the plan of legalizing cannabis, they asked the leaders of the other nations to do the same. The decision of legalizing weed was deemed as a courageous one by Mario Vargas Llosa. The intention of this law is to reduce the profit which is created for the organized crime through drug trafficking. And this also assists in bringing down the rates of drug related violence and the social problems which are coupled with it. The nation has amongst the lowest murder rates in the region. The plan allows the cultivation of marijuana for non-commercial purpose and for granting the licenses to the professional farmers opting for large scale production (Revolvy, 2017). The system has been thoroughly prepared by the government which includes a system of user registry, quality control and taxation, which is properly coordinated through the present agency which monitors alcohol, pharmaceuticals and tobacco. There were approximately seventy thousand users of cannabis in the nation as per Mujica’s estimates for which there was a need of producing over 5,000 pounds of weed for every month. This was deemed as a contribution to humanity as the legalization of weed would help in eradicating the drug trafficking and would also result in benefit for the government as a stakeholder (Crockett, 2014).

There are a number of advantages for legalization of marijuana, which highlight the good behind this policy. The first issue is in the medicinal properties of weed which are quite well known (Welsh & Loria, 2014). A 2016 Pew Research Study highlighted that 57% of US adults believed in making marijuana legal and only 37% stated that it should remain illegal (Geiger, 2016). This shows that the support for weed is not just the case of Uruguay and that the people of other nation also support this idea. This further opens up the prospects of attracting tourists from US for Uruguay, particularly the ones who support the notion of legalizing marijuana. A key problem associated with not legalizing marijuana is that the violations associated with marijuana become a costly affair as funds have to be spent on controlling and regulating the use (Molloy, 2017). Apart from this, there are high costs of keeping the people in prison system, in terms of the money and resources used of the different law enforcement and judicial bodies (Luis, 2016).  

A key advantage of bringing forth the legalization of marijuana is the addition of billions of dollars in the nation’s economy swiftly. The CNBC 2010 article shows that the legalizing of weed would result every year in earnings of $10 billion to $120 billion (Nelson, 2010). Such earnings would result in the economy of any nation being boosted. The imposition of tax on marijuana could also help in earning tax revenues; though, the same is not included in the plans of Uruguay government. The money attained from these policies can be used for the purpose of varied programs. The plans of Uruguay government are aligned with this, where the profit proceeds from legalization of marijuana in the nation are set to be used for addiction treatment and for the public awareness of drug use. Approximately $70 million had been generated by Colorado during the period of July 2014 to June 2015 by taxes which were imposed once marijuana was legalized in Colorado (Sweet, 2015). In 2016, the amount collected from tax on marijuana stool at $200 million approximately (Williams, 2017).

Often the opponents of legalization of weed have stated that these result in the crime rates being increased. Though, when the test cases of Colorado or Washington are looked at, a different picture is painted. In Denver, there had been a very minute rise in crimes in previous years and the same could not be linked with legalization of marijuana since the crimes linked to weed formed less than 1% of all the other offences which took place (Ingold, 2016). There are a number of other factors which have been given legal status and which still result in death of individuals, when compared to marijuana. The alcohol usage results in death of around 88,000 people each year (CDC, 2016). Cigarettes contribute to annually around 480,000 deaths on (National Institute of Abuse, 2017). Overdose of prescription drugs contributes to 25,000 deaths yearly basis (CDC, 2017). No person has been reported to have died as a result of marijuana overdose (Drug Enforcement Administration, 2017). And one can anyways avoid the ill effects of marijuana by in taking it carefully, for the purpose of which, limitations have been put in by the Uruguay government in terms of limited quantity which can be cultivated (Couch, 2015). When the same is compared to the other drugs like opioids, alcohol and even caffeine, marijuana is not addictive (Molly, 2017). 91% have been noticed to not have been addicted to marijuana even after using weed (Arkowitz & Lilienfeld, 2012). As stated earlier, this also benefits in taking power out of the hand of violent drug cartels, which propagate unlawful crossing of borders and resulting in a number of lives being saved (Molloy, 2015). 

A key advantage point which is put in context of legalization of marijuana is that it promotes tourism. A part of tourism is social tourism which tends to facilitate the access to tourism for such groups which would not be otherwise able to participate in holidays due to financial instability. The products of this tourism are varied on the basis of individuals and group holidays (Minnaert, 2014). Social tourism can be linked to the legalization of marijuana in terms of the people being attracted to Uruguay, who are not in such locations where consumption of marijuana is legal and who visit the nation for weed purposes. Though, this legalization is more aptly linked to leisure tourism which is undertaken for the purposes of luxury and indulging in discretionary activity. To travel to another nation for weed is leisure, which ultimately promotes the tourism industry of the nation (Veal, 2006). As a result of this policy, the focus is put on earning revenues by the government through promotion of tourism industry, particularly when it is more than just a mere industry (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2006). It not only brings revenues for the government, but also employment for different individuals and overall, a raised revenue for the nation, which boosts its economy. By marketing of tourism, in terms of legalization of marijuana, Uruguay has again been put on the world map as a favourable tourism location.

This is also advantageous for citizen partnership as the citizens have been included in this policy to grow and sell marijuana. This helps in propagating the idea of citizen participation, where the citizens are given the benefit of participating in the efforts of the government in getting revenues through sale of marijuana (Arnstein, 1969). In words of the vice president of the Centre of Pharmacies in Uruguay, Alejandro Antalich, the legalization of marijuana, the legalization has helped the users without encouraging others who do not consume marijuana (Miroff, 2017).

However, not everything is golden with this policy, and these issues have a capability of negating the advantages of legalizing marijuana stated above. A key impact which is put on the citizens as stakeholders is that the legalisation of marijuana would result in a negative impact being put on them. This is because the consumption of weed results in mental illness being caused. The reason for this is that weed is linked to issues like depression and anxiety, though, a scientific link between the two is yet to be established. Also, evidence has been put forward which shows that the young people who smoked pot on regular basis faced a long lasting damage to their immature brain. This is in addition to the impact of smoking on the lungs, which can result in lung cancer (Grant, 2017). When the public opinion was taken in 2012-13 polls, 58-66% of the people of Uruguay were opposed to the legalization of sale of marijuana and only 24-29% was in support of it, and this poll was undertaken by Equipos Mori, Cifra and Factum.

The main stakeholder group which has been put in a tight spot is the pharmacists. The new policy essentially makes the pharmacists as dealers (Londoño, 2017). Only 16 pharmacies have been given the authorization of selling marijuana which is under the state control and which is not enough for 3.5 million people of the nation. The agreement with major pharmacy chain is still lacking for selling the drug. All this has posed a threat on pharmacies as the pharmacists are concerned about their security and have doubts regarding the small market of registered users being worth the trouble. There is still a lack of state controlled production and sale of marijuana which is a key flaw of this policy. Essentially, with this policy, the government has become the propagator of drugs and plays the role of weed dealer.

Some government officials fear that permitting weed scene as is present in Amsterdam would result in Uruguay being made a pariah amongst the neighbouring nations, which is a cause of concern for such nations (Londoño, 2017). Even though the policy allows residents to grow pot, but who is to stop the facade of gifting? Also, just because a particularly aspect is resulting in high crime rates, is it justified to legalize the same? Does this mean that the nation is taking steps towards legalizing ecstasy and cocaine just because revenues are attained from their sale? The taboo associated with smoking weed has given the citizens the courage to smoke weed in public, as something to take pride in, which shows how wrong this policy is in ethical and moral terms.

Even though there are other areas of the world, where cannabis have been legalized, there is a vast difference in their system and in the system adopted in Uruguay. To show the differentiation, the policy adopted in Colorado and Uruguay has been compared here. The first key difference is that in Colorado, marijuana is still deemed as unlawful by the federal government, whereas in Uruguay, weed is legal. So, the Uruguayans are not required to be worried about a federal cop watching them when they consume weed. Also, in Uruguay, the licenses are handed out to cultivators who can grow cannabis which are to be sold in pharmacies across the nation. In Colorado, recreational marijuana sale is allowed and for growing product, a license is required for dispensaries but there is a lack of national system for the purpose of cultivation and distribution. In Uruguay, weed can be smoked at any place but in law of Colorado, there is a long list of places where cannabis cannot be consumed including the public places. There is also a difference in the amount of marijuana which can be held, where Uruguay permits 40 grams, i.e., 1.4 ounces and Colorado allows one ounce. A key difference stems from Uruguay restricted the growth, possession and sale of marijuana in hands of residents; whilst in Colorado, visitors can purchase weed up to quarter ounce for each day, which is a negative issue from tourism point of view (Carless, 2014).

The following images further highlight the difference in approaches adopted in Uruguay, Washington and Colorado regarding weed legalization.

On the basis of the evaluation of the points presented above, certain key recommendations can be drawn regarding this policy of Uruguay to legalize weed and these have been covered in this segment.

The first key recommendation, which is a U-Turn on the drawn policy, is to remove this policy altogether. In other words, there is a need to scrap the legalization of marijuana in Uruguay and to make it unlawful again. This is majorly because of the change of public sentiment where the public has gone against the legalization of marijuana, which has even became a key point in the rising presidential candidate’s vows, where he promised to repeal majority of this law upon his election. Even though the voters granted another term to the leftist candidate, the marijuana continues to be legal. However, just one year into this policy, the lack of proper policy measures has resulted in citizens being free to growing marijuana. The government is still working on dispensary network (McKay, 2014).

Even though the intention of this law is right but the legalizing of something which the government is not able to control raises a question on the ability of the government and on the ability of the law enforcement of the nation. There is nothing to stop drug mafias from obtaining weed from Uruguay and selling it in other nations as they earlier did with Uruguay. Thus, where the policy cannot be eliminated, there is a need to bring out such measures which can control and restrict the crossing of weed across its borders, particularly to the already worried neighbouring nations, making this the next recommendation for this policy.

Another key recommendation is to bring out all the requisite measures, to control the sale and growth of weed in the nation, instead of merely setting up the limits. This recommendation majorly relates to bringing out the requisite policy measures at the earliest and setting up the proper distribution systems of the government to keep the sale and growth of cannabis in check. It is crucial that every person is accounted for, which is a point of difficulty as every citizen of the nation cannot be checked for following the law, thus posing a danger to the success of this policy.    There is also a need to put restrictions on consumption of weed. The medical issues have already been highlighted in the previous segment and there is an urgent need to inculcate such provisions in the policy which can work towards safeguarding of the negated impact of weed on the health of the citizens. The last recommendation relates to bring out harsher punishments for issues like non-registry or breaching the legal limits of holding or growing weed.

References

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