The performance of executive director of the Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA), Juan Ignacio Tastás, began to generate short circuits with the members of the Board of Directors of the organization because they understand that in many cases it holds meetings and lines of work without informing them, according to what they told The Observer body sources.
The differences with Tastás have already been transferred to the Executive Power by more than one member of the Board of Directors and the pro-secretary of the Presidency, Rodrigo Ferrés, is aware of the issue. Ferrés is also the president of the National Drug Board.
The meeting that Tastás held on Wednesday, June 1, together with the presidential adviser Nicolás Martinelli, with representatives of the Federation of Cannabis Clubs of Uruguay, caused annoyance in other members of the board because they were not aware of it despite the fact that last week There was a meeting of the Board. For the sources this is an example of the way of acting that the executive director has.
In that meeting, Tastás conveyed to the representatives of the clubs that the policy related to marijuana will not changeAs reported Search. The meeting was generated after President Luis Lacalle Pou said in an interview with the BBC that the State made a mistake by regularizing the marijuana market in the way that the Broad Front did.
The rest of the members of the Board of Directors understand that not being aware of this type of actions generates difficulties in maintaining coherence between the discursive line and the line of actions of the organization.
The Board of Directors of the IRCCA is made up, in addition to Tastás, by the Secretary General of the National Drug Secretariat, Daniel Radío -who chairs it- and by representatives of the Ministries of Industry, Public Health, Social Development and the Ministry of Livestock , Agriculture and fishing.
consulted by The Observer, Tastás assured that at no time did he receive any complaint about his actions as executive director. Regarding the meeting with the Federation of Clubs in particular, the chief pointed out that the meeting was requested directly from Martinelli and that it was the presidential adviser who asked him to accompany him.
Before taking office at the IRCCA, Tastás was working at the Ministry of Industry as head of the Economic Policy Unit, despite the fact that he initially intended to be director of Industry, a position held by Susana Pecoy.
His performance at the head of the Economic Policy Unit of the MIEM was not without problems and clashes with authorities of the portfolioas they told The Observer government sources. To such an extent that his work did not conform to the ministry and his departure from that position was not on the best terms, the sources added.
Since he has been at the head of the IRCCA, Tastás has worked very closely with presidential adviser Nicolás Martinelli and is also the son of the leader of the Chamber of Industry Héctor Tastás, who has a historic relationship with the secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado. . Tastás took over as executive director of the IRCCA in December 2021 after he passed through Industry.
