6 years ago, Uruguay opened up the sale of recreational cannabis

Uruguay, the first country in the world to legalize cannabis for adults in 2013, has cannabis sales open four years later, in 2017. On the sixth anniversary of the start of adult-use cannabis sales in Uruguay, the Institute of Cannabis Regulation and Control (IRCCA), Uruguay's cannabis regulatory body, last week published data on cannabis sales in pharmacies.

Unlike the legalizing cannabis in Canada or in the 23 American states, Uruguay has opted for a model where the consumer can either buy cannabis in a pharmacy, join a Cannabis Club or grow it at home. Drugstore sales are subsidized so that cannabis costs no more than 1.30$ per gram, and are made only after registration in a database. Clubs, on the other hand, have between 15 and 45 members and produce their own cannabis.

Between July 19, 2017 and July 19, 2023, around 75,000 residents registered in one way or another for the government's cannabis program, of which 61,509 registered to buy legal cannabis, mostly via pharmacies and 10,486 via the 300 or so Clubs. Over the period, Uruguayan pharmacies sold 10,693,210 grams of cannabis, according to the IRCCA. And 14,592 are registered as growing cannabis at home.

On the production side, only 3 companies operating in Uruguay are currently able to cultivate and distribute cannabis via the 37 pharmacies authorized to market cannabis to registered citizens.

Historic and limited legalization

While the announcement of legalization met with some objections, for example from Russia or the United Nations, which claimed that it was a flagrant violation of the International Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the small country guided at the time by the president Jose «Pepe» Mujica, went all the way with his project.

The Uruguayan model does of course have some drawbacks, which have led to the fact that the number of official consumers in this market is relatively low, not least because many residents don't want to be registered in government databases as cannabis consumers or growers, and therefore continue to grow or buy cannabis illegally.

Another drawback of the Uruguayan model of selling cannabis in pharmacies is the limited selection of strains 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 :

• «Alpha: sativa with 9% of THC and 3% of CBD
• «Beta: indica with 9% of THC and 3% of CBD
• « Gamma »Hybrid with 15% THC and up to 1% CBD
• «Delta» (coming soon): with a high percentage of CBD and a low percentage of THC

Today's experts therefore estimate that only half of all cannabis consumption is consumed in Europe. on the legal market and that major suppliers are now small self-producers who grow unregistered crops and supply a limited, local circle of consumers.

Nevertheless, according to a report published in 2020, legalization has not led to any rising cannabis use among teenagers Uruguayans.

The study, published in the’International Journal of Drug Policy, The study concluded that there was «no evidence of an impact on cannabis use or risk perception» among the country's young people.

«Our results support the thesis that the Uruguayan state's regulatory approach to cannabis supply may minimize the impact of legalization on cannabis use among adolescents,» the study states. «At the same time, our study period represents a period of transition: pharmacy access, by far the most popular means of access, was not available until summer 2017. Further studies will be important to assess the longer-term impacts of the fully implemented legalization regime on substance use outcomes.»

The study, billed as the «first empirical evidence of [the law's] impact on cannabis use and related risks among adolescents», also revealed that there had been «no increase in students» perception of cannabis availability" following legalization.