Saturday, September 03, 2022

Marijuana legalization in Latin America

Recommendable! Can some lessons be learnt here? The question of legalizing and regulating drugs in a society is controversial.

Many questions remain:
E.g. what about heightened individual responsibility when consuming recreational drugs (e.g. car crash involving drugged driver)?
E.g. how do we make sure that children are not consuming recreational drugs (it is already difficult with alcohol).
E.g. how does the legalization of marijuana affect other, still illicit drugs?

"In January, Mexico approved new rules for medical marijuana, marking another step toward potential full legalization of the drug. The move followed the 2018 decision by Mexico’s supreme court that the prohibition of recreational marijuana was unconstitutional, and the Senate’s passage in November 2020 of legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use, which is expected to go before the Lower House in the coming months. Legalization would make Mexico the largest legal marijuana market in the world, but it is several years behind Latin America’s cannabis pioneer. 
In 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize marijuana. Although Uruguay decriminalized possession of the drug in 1974, the country’s decision to attempt full legalization was controversial. ...
Importantly, legalization did not signal deregulation: Only Uruguayan pharmacies are allowed to sell the drug, and the regulations limit its sale to citizens who register with the government and limit their purchase to ten grams a week. ...
Uruguay’s experience offers insights for Mexico and other countries contemplating legalization.
Despite fears of an explosion in marijuana use in Uruguay, there has only been a five percentage point increase in users since 2013. Still, official producers have failed to meet demand; only a third of users purchased marijuana from the regulated market in 2018.
To expand on the supplies from the Canadian International Marijuana Corporation and U.S.-based Simbiosys, Uruguay issued three more production licenses in 2019, to U.S.-based Biopharmaceutical Research Company and Uruguay-based Jabelor and Legira. Uruguay-based Fotmer, Dormul and Burey are licensed to produce medical marijuana for Uruguay. In 2020, the Canadian firm Boreal opened a medical hemp processing plant in Uruguay. ...
Now, marijuana growers in Uruguay are ready to look beyond domestic users, especially should major markets like Mexico open up. Brazil legalized medical marijuana in 2019 but does not permit its local production, creating an opportunity for Uruguayan producers. For the 12 Uruguayan firms exporting marijuana last year, the principal markets were Portugal, Switzerland and Israel. Uruguay began to export marijuana in 2019 and doubled exports in 2020, to $7.3 million. ..."

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