Uruguay, which was the first country in the world to legalize cannabis for adults in 2013, opened up cannabis sales four years later in 2017.
To mark the sixth anniversary of the start of adult cannabis in Uruguay, the Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA), the cannabis regulatory body in Uruguay, published data last week on cannabis sales in pharmacies.
In contrast to the legalization of cannabis in Canada or in the 23 American states, Uruguay has opted for a model where the consumer has the possibility of buying cannabis in a pharmacy, participating in a Cannabis Club or growing it at home.
Sales in pharmacies are subsidized so that cannabis costs no more than $1.30 per gram and are only made after registration in a database. Clubs, on the other hand, have 15 to 45 members and produce their own cannabis.
In the period between July 19, 2017 and July 19, 2023, approximately 75,000 residents registered in some way with the government's cannabis program, of which 61,509 are registered to purchase legal cannabis, mostly through pharmacies and 10,486 through the approximately 300 Clubs.
During this period, Uruguayan pharmacies sold 10,693,210 grams of cannabis, according to IRCA. Of these, 14,592 are registered as cultivating cannabis at home.
On the production side, only three companies operating in Uruguay currently have the ability to cultivate and distribute cannabis through 37 pharmacies authorized to sell cannabis to registered citizens.
A legalization that is certainly historic but limited
Although the announcement of the legalization of cannabis in Uruguay met with some opposition, such as from Russia or the United Nations , which stated that it was a flagrant violation of the International Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the small country, then led by President Jose Pepe Mujica, went ahead with its project.
It is nevertheless important to note that the Uruguayan model has some drawbacks which have led to the fact that the number of official consumers in this market is relatively low, among other things because many residents do not want to be registered in government databases as cannabis consumers or cannabis growers and therefore continue to grow or buy cannabis illegally.
Another drawback of the Uruguayan model of selling cannabis in pharmacies: the limited selection of varieties on the legal market which includes only three varieties (one of which was added very recently) and one will be added at the end of 2023.
Experts now estimate that only half of cannabis consumption takes place on the legal market and that the main suppliers are now small self-producers who grow without being registered and supply a limited and local circle of consumers.
However, according to a report published in 2020, legalization has not led to an increase in cannabis consumption among Uruguayan teenagers.
Source :
https://www.newsweed.fr/6-ans-uruguay-vente-cannabis-recreatif/
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