ENRIQUE Curbelo, 76, is great. Selling marijuana has enabled him to open his personal pharmacy in Montevideo, a market dominated by a large chain in Uruguay.
"I have to sell what they do not sell, to me it's like selling aspirin," he continued. It's been like this for a year now. Curbelo had to forget his own prejudices before deciding to join a select group of pharmacies selling plants.
There are 14, half of them in the capital, serving 24,812 registered buyers. Every Wednesday, Ismael Fernandez receives a WhatsApp message from a local pharmacist informing him that marijuana supplies have arrived.
After leaving work, he went there and bought 10 grams of law permitted Uruguay, for 400 pesos, about US $ 13. Fernandez then headed home and rolled up with the cannabis with his partner Stefania Fabricio.
They no longer need to secretly contact the dealer and pay more for marijuana Paraguay or Brazil that has been pressed, mixed, and sometimes very bad and full of chemicals.
"It's much easier now than when it started," said Fernandez, 31, a cleaning company worker. It's been four and a half years since marijuana usage became legal in Uruguay and a year since it was sold in pharmacies by purchasing 40 grams a month per person.
Initially, the supply is not enough, making people queue up long because the stock sometimes runs out. Now, more pharmacies are preparing. "They send you a message with the number you use later and pick it up, and in my pharmacy you can order it online," added Fernandez, father of a three-year-old child.
Hairdresser Fabricio, 31, says the quality is good, but not too strong. "It does not make your head spin, you get the effect, but you can still do things perfectly."
He claimed to be privileged to live in a country that enacted a law that kept many people out of the black market. As a result, the stigma attached to those who smoked marijuana changed, albeit slowly.
"The system is simple, to buy cannabis in your pharmacy must be at least 18 years old, living in Uruguay, and register as a buyer at the post office," he explained. However, the bank had refused to work with a company that sold marijuana because of international rules against drug trafficking.
Users can choose between two brands and two types of cannabis, sativa and indica, both provided by authorized distributors. Official statistics say 70% of buyers are male and 49% are between 18 and 29 years old.
To prevent overuse violations, a fingerprint machine is used to register each sale. Along with the ability to buy marijuana at pharmacies, the citizens of Uruguay have the right to grow themselves, up to a maximum of six plants, or join a cannabis club, which can have up to 45 members and 99 plants.
Federico Corbo, a 41-year-old gardener, grows marijuana in his garden on the outskirts of Montevideo. He experimented with cross-species in an effort to improve quality and optimize the flowering period.
Corbo was not impressed with the quality offered at the pharmacy. "It's not the worst, but it's low," he continued. Cannabis that do not reach minimum standards, with crushed flowers, no aroma, low quality, and may not be sold in pharmacies.
"Maybe, because I am a planter, I am very demanding, but there are costs associated with the product and it should be offered to the public in the best way possible," he continued.
According to the Institute of Cannabis Regulation and Control (Ircca), an average cultivator or club member supplies marijuana to two others, such as a purchase from a pharmacy. "About half of marijuana users have access to controlled marijuana," Ircca said. The rest prefer to continue to buy drugs on the black market, put off registering as a user.
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