Medical Cannabis

Introduction:

Uruguay tends to do things about 30 years after other countries, but in some areas Uruguay has historically been a leader - a welfare state (1919), universal suffrage (1918), abolishing the death penalty (1922) for example. In other respects Uruguay just likes to do things the other way around. So whilst Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalise cannabis in 2013, the authorities focused at first on recreational use (legal sales started in pharmacies in July 2017) and only now are they concentrating on pharmaceutical uses (legal sales started in pharmacies in December 2017).

To many people's surprise (this writer included), the recreational use system seems to be working well and according to government figures, 55% of marihuana users are already legal users, after only a year of sales. On the medicinal use side in addition to the published goal of improving public health in Uruguay, there is also the possibility of forming part of a growing international business.

Legal regime:

Law 19172 was passed in 2013 and Regulating Decree No. 46 of 2015 regulates the law as regards medicinal uses. It sets out a number of requirements in order to get a license to produce cannabis for medical use, which can be divided into 3 groups:

IRCCA approval - IRCCA is the state authority created by Law 19172 to take charge of almost everything to do with cannabis production, including importation and exportation. Public Health approval - The Ministry of Public Health must approve any medicine for sale in Uruguay, so logically this includes products including cannabis. Central Bank approval - Very strict controls are exercised by the Uruguayan Central Bank through the National Anti-Money Laundering Secretariat to ensure that all funds used are licit. As such applicants must show the origin of all funds used and must also reveal the ultimate ownership of any company vehicle used. Practice:

IRCCA informs that there has been a lot of interest in the medicinal cannabis market, but almost all these projects are still at...