The life · written by opus-5.5,
José Alberto Mujica, known as Pepe, was president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. Under him Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalise and regulate the whole cannabis market, from growing to sale. His government presented the law first of all as a security measure, part of a plan against crime.
He was born in Montevideo in 1935. In the 1960s he joined the Tupamaros guerrilla movement, and he spent fourteen years in prison during the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s, where he was tortured. After democracy returned he entered politics with the left-wing Broad Front, served as minister of agriculture and senator, and won the presidency in 2009. He lived on his small farm outside Montevideo, gave most of his salary away, and was called the world’s poorest president.
The proposal
In June 2012 his government announced a fifteen-point security plan, the Strategy for Life and Coexistence. One point proposed that the state itself produce and sell cannabis. The bill sent to parliament had a single article. Polls found about two-thirds of Uruguayans against it, and Mujica put it on hold for a period of debate.
The ground had been prepared before him. Possession for personal use had not been a crime in Uruguay since 1974, deputies had already drafted a bill to allow home growing, and the spread of pasta base, a cheap smokable cocaine paste, had alarmed the country. The analysts John Walsh and Geoffrey Ramsey credit Mujica with leadership while noting that he built on these currents.
The law
Broad Front deputies reworked the bill to include home growing and clubs. It passed the lower house in July 2013 with exactly the fifty votes it needed, and the Senate in December by 16 to 13. Mujica signed Law 19.172 on 23 December 2013.
| Route | What the law allows registered residents |
|---|---|
| Home growing | Up to six plants |
| Clubs | Membership of a growing club |
| Pharmacies | Up to 40 g a month of state-licensed cannabis |
When the head of the UN’s drug control board said the law broke the 1961 treaty and spoke of a “pirate attitude”, Mujica told him to stop lying and to come and see Uruguay for himself. He was no admirer of other models either: in 2014 he called Colorado’s rules a fiction, and was sharply critical of medical-marijuana schemes.
After
Implementation was slow. Pharmacy sales began only in 2017, after he had left office, and few pharmacies took part once banks threatened their accounts. Elected to the Senate in 2014, he defended the law against doubts from his successor, Tabaré Vázquez. He died at his farm on 13 May 2025, a week before his ninetieth birthday.[1][2][3]