Uruguay vote moves the country towards legal cannabis

Could the US government be losing support in the global war on drugs? A year after some Latin American countries officially discussed alternatives to prohibition, Uruguay has moved to allow the production, sale and distribution of cannabis.

The new legislation, which has made it through one house of parliament in Uruguay, has been described by President José Mujica as a “cutting-edge experiment“.

If passed by the upper house, the laws will allow registered users to buy up to 40 grams a month from a pharmacist, grow up to six plants at home, or grow up to 99 plants as part of a “cannabis club” made up of between 15 and 45 members.

Uruguay has seen increases in crime associated with illegal drugs, particularly cocaine. According to the US Department of State, the drug problem continues there despite “concerted and consistent government efforts to combat these trends”, including increased arrests and drug seizures. Mujica says the legislation aims to bring an existing market into the “light of day” and stop it from “corrupting everything”.

“They are doing it for the same reason the US stopped alcohol prohibition [in the 1930s],” says David Nutt at Imperial College London. “To reduce organised crime and achieve tax revenue for the country.”

The move comes hot on the heels of two US states legalising the production and distribution of cannabis and New Zealand creating a legal market for new designer drugs.

Global drug prohibition is unravelling in front of us, says Alex Wodak, a doctor and drug and alcohol expert from Sydney, Australia. He says the moves in the states of Colorado and Washington, and now in Uruguay appear to breach the 1998 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and maybe also the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and will embolden other Latin American countries and other US States to consider similar moves.

“All this is coming about because it is now inescapable that global drug prohibition has been ineffective, counter-productive and very expensive,” says Wodak. He notes that in Mexico alone, more than 60,000 people have been killed in an ongoing drug war, leading to popular doubts about prohibition.

But don’t buy a ticket to Uruguay hoping to buy some legal weed. Only Uruguayans will be allowed to buy the stuff, part of an attempt to avoid attracting cannabis tourism.