“I don’t believe in states growing and selling marijuana. I believe in people, cannabis clubs or whatever we have, that produce their own marijuana and can have their own circles of marijuana consumption. And not the State,” said the Uruguayan president in London, speaking on the British network’s Hard Talk program.
In 2013, the South American country became the first country in the world to legalize the production and sale of marijuana, an initiative considered by the government of then-leftist President José Mujica as an experiment in combating drug trafficking.
The Cannabis Regulation Law enables three mechanisms to legally access the drug: self-cultivation in homes, cooperative cultivation in clubs, and the sale of marijuana produced by private companies under state control in pharmacies.
Currently, about twenty pharmacies sell state cannabis. A 5-gram package costs about 10 dollars, a price that is intended to compete with that offered on the illegal market.
For Lacalle Pou, the State “does not have to be in plantations and selling drugs”, because production “is not sustainable”.
“In fact, we are putting money in because we have to put in some money monthly, annually,” he added.
“We made a mistake. That is why I did not vote for him at that time ”when he was a senator, added the center-right president, who made an official visit to the United Kingdom this week and met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“Now we have the system working. So we can change it, but we can’t change it overnight,” she noted.
The entrance President of Uruguay believes that the State should not participate in the marijuana trade was first published in diary TODAY.