A regulação do mercado da maconha como alternativa à proibição : um estudo do caso uruguaio

Abstract

The present work seeks to carry out a case study of the Uruguayan model of regulation of the marijuana market with state control, as an alternative to the prohibitive paradigm of control of drugs considered illegal. In view of the remarkable growth of the anti-prohibitionist movement in the last decade in Latin America and also globally, the present research seeks to identify the conditions of possibility that allowed Law 19.172 of Regulation and Control of the cannabis Market to be developed, proposed, approved and implemented in Uruguay. Thus, the objective investigation based on sociology, political science and history of the country, understands the antecedents that allowed to Uruguay this position of vanguard in the adoption of progressive policies. Therefore, the long-term antecedents correspond to the reforms developed in the country in the first decades of the Twentieth Century, in the period known as Batllism, which were responsible for building the pillars that sustains the current Uruguayan citizen matrix, with the strengthening of its democracy and party system. The short-term antecedents are presented through the arrival of the party “Frente Ampla” to Presidency in 2005, which marked the beginning of the Progressive Era (la era progresista) in Uruguay. With its consecration from the presidential term of Pepe Mujica, in view of the significant expansion of the governmental Agenda in the field of civil rights, with the main objectives being: the legalization of egalitarian marriage, the decriminalization of abortion and the regulation of the marijuana market, this last being the object of this research. The empirical part of this work, through semi-structured interviews with Uruguayan actors from different areas, fundamental for the development of the regulation model, intends to present how the path to regulation law was constructed, as well as the perspectives of the informants concerning the model and its expectations with the new drug policy developed by the country in relation to cannabis.