Uruguay’s drug policy: Major innovations, major challenges

This Brookings report analyses the evolution of Uruguay's drug policies, in particular its history of relatively liberal drug policies and its role as the first country to legalize and regulate every level of the market for cannabis.

Uruguay will be an important example globally for political leaders contemplating whether and how to liberalize drug policies. Even before its return to democracy in 1985, Uruguay had traditionally adopted relatively liberal drug policies.

A combination of political leadership by President José “Pepe” Mujica and public unease over rising criminality led Uruguay to pursue drug reform.

Compared to similar cannabis laws in Washington and Colorado, the Uruguayan measure is more state-centered, with less emphasis on commercialization and greater restrictions on use. Uruguayan public opinion has remained opposed to—or at least skeptical of— the law.

Uruguay will have to contend with international criticism and domestic political forces as it moves to implement enabling legislation in 2015.

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