Uruguay: cannabis legalization captures 40% of regular cannabis users

The number of people registered to access cannabis at pharmacies has tripled since the full implementation of cannabis regulation in Uruguay.

To date, more than 13,000 people have purchased their medications at pharmacies—three times as many as during the’Start of sales in pharmacies, 7,075 people registered to grow their own cannabis, and 1,626 joined one of the country’s 64 Cannabis Social Clubs.

Through these three legal channels for accessing cannabis, regulation has enabled 22,000 people to stop purchasing from the black market—that is, 40% of regular cannabis users in Uruguay, according to the figures from Monitor Cannabis, a working group affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the Republic, and the Uruguayan Drug Observatory.

Of Uruguay’s 3 million residents, approximately 62,000 people use cannabis occasionally, 35,000 use it several times a month, and 50,000 use it almost daily.

The Uruguayan government noted that the regulation was progressing successfully, despite the difficulties faced by pharmacies.

Of the 16 pharmacies involved when sales began, only 11 continue to sell cannabis, and 8 of them accept only cash. The country’s banks—some of which are subsidiaries of foreign groups—refuse to allow «drug money» in their accounts, even though cannabis is legal in the country.

So far, no real solution has been found. In his latest video on Deutsche Welle, Jose «Pepe» Mujica, the former president of Uruguay who spearheaded the effort to legalize cannabis, asked banks to show «a little common sense toward a small country» that has successfully allowed state-run pharmacies to sell cannabis.

«The Uruguayan market is very small. Instead of creating these difficulties for us, they should applaud Uruguay’s experiment—whether it works or not—which is attempting to take a new approach to a scourge that affects the entire community.».