Uruguay’s pioneering cannabis regulation marks tipping point

• View infographics on Uruguay's cannabis regulation

The historical vote is expected to inspire and spread cannabis reform initiatives around the world and to have a major impact on upcoming UN-level drug policy evaluations.

“The approval of regulation under state control in Uruguay marks a tipping point in the failed war against drugs. The trend is becoming irreversible: the era of a globally enforced cannabis prohibition regime is drawing to a close,” says Martin Jelsma, Coordinator of the Drugs & Democracy Programme at the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI).

“Uruguay is part of an overall trend of alternative drug policies that have emerged in Colorado and Washington states, in countries like Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic and The Netherlands, and in discussions throughout Latin America. It is clear that the drug policy debate is growing in breadth and sophistication, and will not easily be reduced again to false choices and empty slogans,” says TNI researcher Tom Blickman.

TNI is a policy research institute based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Since 1996, its Drugs and Democracy Programme has analysed trends in the illegal drugs economy and the global drugs control regime and examined the causes and effects on the economy, conflict situations and democracy. A major study on cannabis and the international drug control regime will be released in January contributing to global policy reviews scheduled for 2014 and 2016.

More in-depth analysis of Uruguay’s drug policy reform process can be found on TNI’s Drug Law Reform website at http://www.druglawreform.info/en/country-information/uruguay

To arrange interviews in English or Spanish:

Martin Jelsma
Email: mjelsma@tni.org.
Tel: + 31 20 662 66 08
Mobile: + 31 655 71 58 93

Tom Blickman
Email: tblick@tni.org
Tel: + 31 20 662 66 08
Mobile: +31 621 53 58 09

Pien Metaal
Email: pmetaal@tni.org
Mobile: +31 6 40 79 88 08