Not assigned

phtographer Christian Mantuano

December, 2014

In 2013 in Uruguay it begins a process to regulate and allow the sale and consumption of marijuana for recreational use. Since 2005 many social movements started to demand human rights liked to important social issues like the non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, the decriminalization of abortion and the legalization of marijuana. José “Pepe” Mujica was elected as President in 2009 and his progressive ideas actually resulted in the enactment of new laws, including the decriminalization of abortion, the recognition of the egalitarian marriage and the regulation of the cannabis production in 2013. 

This laws not only represented a significant social and economic change for the country, but also brought a sharp cultural change which introduced new ways of being and thinking in the population. The Uruguayan government took decisions like setting the official price of marijuana (one dollar per gram as it is in the black market) and establish the rules for the registration as a marijuana user: self-cultivation, growers’ clubs, pharmacies.