Reaching New Highs: Uruguay’s Legal Marijuana Sales Double
Sales doubled, as Uruguay's "Petri dish" experiment proves legal weed can curb crime.
It's been more than ten years since José Mujica, one of LatAm's best-known political leaders of this century, successfully pushed to make Uruguay the first country to legalize marijuana. The logic was that illegal drug trafficking was going nowhere and that Uruguay's government's competitive and safe oversight would at least make it harder for criminal groups to operate.
The program included the mandatory registration of pot smokers with the government and framing its use as a free decision by the individual but as a potentially harmful activity if used in excess. In Mujica's own words:
We're starting an experiment. Almost certainly, we're going to be under international spotlights. We're a Petri dish, a social laboratory. We want to contribute with an experience that can be useful to the world to create better policy.
In 2017, as part of the plan, pharmacies began the sale of weed. According to data from Uruguay's IRCCA, which oversees this country-wide experiment, there has been a substantial surge in legal Marijuana sales this year. The first half of 2023 saw more sales than all of 2022.
The oldest evidence of marijuana smoking goes back 2.5K years, even before Jesus was born. It's unclear how long the stigma around cannabis has existed, but it's undoubtedly omnipresent today. This past decade has seen a push to destigmatize and accept marijuana in Western countries, pioneered by Uruguay and the younger population.
Latin America has become the most progressive region regarding its use. Mexico has moved to legalize it completely, and in South America, most countries have decriminalized its use. Perhaps this is because the drug trade affects Latin America — in the form of violence — most severely.
So, what have we learned about legalization's effect on violent drug trafficking? Most people agree that it won't result in the elimination of criminal and violent organizations. But shifting criminalization away from users, who are, for the most part, non-violent citizens, is possibly an excellent step on a path for citizens to find peaceful co-existence.