Uruguay Simplifies International Cannabis Exports
Newly announced legislation in Uruguay has simplified the international trade of medical cannabis. Uruguayan President Lacalle Pou signed two decrees which opened doors for cannabis exports to Europe and worldwide. The announcement came during a press conference last week by Deputy Secretary of the Presidency Rodrigo Ferrés, and has been met with praise by the industry.
The two decrees cover psychoactive (over 1% THC) and non-psychoactive (under 1% THC) cannabis, and allows any products harvested 2018 onwards to be exported even if they are not registered as a medical product - they must only meet the regulatory framework of the receiving country. This aimed to reverse 2015 legislation that made it impossible to register raw materials as medicine holding back many companies who seeked to export flowers to Eruope.
Daniel Radío, head of the Uruguayan national drug agency told a local radio station “we need to rethink the rules moving forward”. He said these new decrees are only designed to solve the current situation with recent harvests, however the discussion will lead to more permanent changes in legislation to provide less obstacles for the industry’s domestic and international trade.
Overly complicated and restrictive rules have had a history of slowing down business and investment in Uruguay's cannabis industry. One example of this has been the Canadian firm Auxly Cannabis significantly decreasing its Uruguay operations last year after being sanctioned by the government for processing more extracts and growing larger plants than their license permitted.
Even in the face of convoluted regulations, Uruguay has still had some great successes so far. Last May Uruguay set the record for largest single export of dried cannabis flowers ever - 1,421kg of dried flowers were sent to Portugal by Fotmer Life Sciences, a locally based subsidiary of Canadian company Silverpeak. Jordan Lewis, founder and chief executive of Silverpeak and Fotmer told the Financial Times: “Despite the challenges of operating amid the Covid pandemic we continue to ship product around the world - helped in large part by the fact that cannabis has been deemed an essential service in most legal jurisdictions”.
Uruguay is looking to carefully lessen restrictions with the goal of making cannabis its biggest agricultural export in the near future, hoping to attract more international companies and investment. Official customs data shows that Uruguay exported just under 3,000 kilograms of high-THC flower for an average price of about $2.50 per gram, despite the restrictions that were in place until now. Two weeks ago, Uruguayan company Cannabis Uruguay Ltda announced the completion of its first shipment of 50 kilograms of flowers to Switzerland, which went via Germany. The company expects the new legislation will mean more high-quantity exports to Europe in the near future.
Uruguay has always had a forward thinking drug policy; it is one of the few countries in the world that never criminalized the personal possession and use of illicit drugs. Their understandably slow and careful approach to cannabis legalization has hindered the industry’s domestic and international ambitions, however the government is now showing a willingness to speed up the bureaucracy for the sake of boosting the country's economy with this valuable plant.