Business group fights Uruguay`s marijuana rules

Montevideo: A business group in Uruguay, the first country to legalize the production and sale of marijuana, is challenging a decree barring employers from punishing employees who come to work high.

The decree issued May 5 by President Jose Mujica allows employers to send a worker home for being under the influence but "without proceeding to disciplinary sanctions," unless he or she has done something else to merit it. Uruguay`s chamber of commerce filed a complaint late Wednesday with Mujica, setting in motion a 150-day appeals process before it can be taken to the courts. Claudio Piacenza, the chamber`s manager, told AFP the prohibition on punishing workers who come to work high "seems like nonsense to us." "This is an experiment in every sense of the word," Piacenza said of Uruguay`s decision to legalize marijuana. "From the outside we are a very advanced liberal country, but there is a sense that they (the government) are improvising as they go along," he said. The rule the business group is objecting to is one item in a decree that regulates the production and sale of marijuana. It establishes rules for the new market for marijuana, including prices and limits on how much individuals can buy or grow.