Without zombies or excesses, marijuana celebrates 5 years in Uruguayan pharmacies

Neither fearsome “zombie gangs” nor exponential addiction they can be glimpsed in an Uruguay that, five years after opening the sale of marijuana in pharmacies, sees in the rearview mirror a pioneering process that overcame “stumbling” and gained acclaim.

An image marked July 19, 2017: With long lines waiting outside, Uruguayan pharmacies have begun offering packages of legal marijuana which closed the process of the law passed in 2013.

Five years later, in the Antártida pharmacy in Montevideo, one of the 16 that opened the sale, calm reigns and only the particular procedure for presenting the fingerprint distinguishes the sale of cannabis from that of medicines.

Is that, as assured by its owner, Sergio Redín, in Efe, despite initial fears, the sale took place “without any problem” and even the most “conservative” customers have not stopped shopping there.

“When we applied we had our fears; it was something totally new, many pharmacies were against it. Fears of security, that there would be social rejection, of customers. None of this happened, “she points out.

The myths”

The former secretary general of the National Drug Board Milton Romani – who accompanied the state trial until 2016 – expresses himself on the same line, underlining that on that day it was clear that there were many unfounded “myths” on the subject.

“On July 19, 2017, an icon fell, a generalized prejudice. Pharmacies opened, they started selling to those who were registered; there were no zombie gangs attacking pharmacies as some predicted,” he points out.

This is just one of the many myths that, according to Romani, hovered about the process of regulating the sale of cannabis required by law. promoted by the government of José Mujica (2010-2015) to combat drug trafficking.

He adds that it also emerged that Uruguay “it would have been inundated” with Brazilians or Argentines that they would come to buy marijuana and that consumption in the country would increase exponentially, which they did not.

“The scientific research that has been conducted has shown that the legalization and regulation of cannabis has not increased consumption. Chile has neither regulated nor legalized and consumes more than Uruguay. In Uruguay it grew a bit at first and has now stabilized“, To explain.

I stumble that have not fallen

Juan Ignacio Tastás, executive director of the Institute for Cannabis Regulation and Control (IRCCA) of Uruguay, assures that the process, which was “pioneered” on a global scale and had cannabis clubs and self-cultivation like others pillars, It wasn’t without its bumps.

In the case of pharmacies, which today have 49,630 shoppers registered to receive up to 10 grams per week, Tastás says the main problem has been the shortages, which have generated “discouragement” in consumers.

Redín agrees on this, who observes that the fact that demand exceeds supply is “logical” when a process as controlled as that of this law is inaugurated, but anticipates that the situation today “was totally reversed”, because there is “spare”.

Meanwhile, an unresolved obstacle on the horizon for Tastás is financial distress, as US banks and, consequently, Uruguayans, recognize the sale of cannabis as illegal and this makes it difficult to operate in the pharmacy.

Another important self-criticism comes from Mujica, who regrets not having made more use of the medicinal route for having gone ahead with “a lot of parsimony”.

“We could have exploited that law and they have become a vanguard in the medicinal use of marijuanabecause companies from abroad arrived like weeds, but we played a loyalty game (…) in the bureaucratic gears and now they have started producing marijuana for medicinal purposes in various places with or without law, “he remarks to Efe.

a new chapter

While in the center of Montevideo several people enter the Antártida pharmacy to ask for the “Alfa” or “Beta” varieties, Redín believes that the new impetus for consumers will come with the new variant that the IRCCA is already preparing and which will increase psychoactive THC. from the current 6% to 12 or 13%.

Testás assures, however, that the IRCCA does not seek to generate products with more psychoactivity, but to retain consumers who will seek it in unsafe ways.

“What we’re trying to do is get consumers who already exist pass from illegality or other sources of supply“, To explain.

On the other hand, which only 28 pharmacies have signed up to so far, Testás points this out is trying to convince more at least to “double” that figure across the country.

It is that, as a recent poll by pollster Cifra shows, the approval of regulated selling has gone from 24% in 2012 to 48% today, so almost half of Uruguayans support the pioneering law.

EFE agency

PB