Uruguay puts hashish under a state monopoly

Uruguay’s pharmacies began selling cannabis in 2017. It was the second time the state had given them that job. The first was eighty years earlier.

The 1937 law

Law 9.692, of 11 September 1937, dealt with hashish and other narcotics in three moves.

• Import became a monopoly of the state.
• Sale was allowed only in pharmacies, on a doctor’s prescription.
• Possession by anyone not authorised became an offence, with one to two years in prison.

It was a prohibition in the form of a public service. The drug was not declared forbidden; it was declared the state’s, to be handed out through a medical channel.

A habit of monopolies

The approach was typical of the country. In 1931 Uruguay had created a state monopoly on distilling spirits, which lasted until 1996. Controlling a risky product by owning its supply was an established way of doing things.

The long middle

In 1974 possession of a minimal quantity for personal use stopped being punished, while growing and selling stayed serious crimes. For almost forty years a Uruguayan could lawfully hold cannabis that could not lawfully be obtained.

The return

When the government of José Mujica set out to close that gap, it reached for the same instrument. The 2013 law put the whole chain under state control, with production by contracted growers and sale through pharmacies, which began in 2017. This time no prescription was needed.

In the index the 1937 law is Uruguay’s first step down from an unregulated state. What makes it worth a second look is that the idea in it, the state as the only legitimate dealer, survived the prohibition it was written to enforce.^[1][2]