Just recently, two Uruguay companies were granted licenses to grow marijuana in order for it to be commercially distributed. This time next year, cannabis will be available on pharmacy shelves across Uruguay. The country has been well known for its efforts to eliminate the drug cartels from the picture, which has been one of the main reasons to legalize marijuana in the first place. The next logical step would be to make it available for consumption and then make money by taxing it properly. The trouble was nobody had foreseen how complex this endeavor might be, which is why it took them two years longer to actually implement the regulations to a certain extent and grant the two licenses to the aforementioned companies.
It’s not that only two companies applied. Actually, twenty-two companies applied but only Symbiosys and Iccorp were approved to produce two tons of marijuana per year, which is no small feat. Legalizing marijuana in Uruguay was controversial as hell but now the law allows people to actually grow up to six plants in their home or garden while registered marijuana users can acquire up to 40 grams a month per person at a pharmacy. This should basically eliminate any need to go to war on drugs because the drug is now legalized. Uruguay is well known for being liberal country since smoking marijuana has been legal since 1998. In fact, the country now has about 150,000 marijuana smokers.
