Uruguay made history by becoming the first nation in the world to fully legalize marijuana and the country begins retail sales today! Read this great piece with quotes from DPA’s Hannah Hetzer in The New York Times today here.
Presidential candidate for the ruling Broad Front party Tabare Vazquez kisses a Uruguya’s flag as he celebrates in Montevideo, Uruguay Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014. Exits polls shows that Broad Front coalition candidate and former president Tabare Vazquez has won the presidential elections.(AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Tabare Vazquez easily won Uruguay’s presidential election on Sunday, returning to power a left-leaning coalition that has helped legalize gay marriage and moved to create the world’s first state-run marijuana marketplace.
The runoff vote had drawn international attention because Vazquez’s rival, center-right candidate Luis Lacalle Pou, had promised to undo much of the plan to put the government in charge of regulating the production, distribution and sale of marijuana on a nationwide scale.
Lacalle Pou, 41, called Vazquez to concede and “wish him great success” after exit polls showed him losing. Late Sunday night, Uruguay’s Electoral Court announced that with all the votes counted, Vazquez had 53 percent support and Lacalle Pou 40 percent.
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