MONTEVIDEO - Two companies got a license from the Uruguayan government to cultivate marijuana, under state control, which will be sold in pharmacies thanks to a 2013 law which de-criminalizes the production and sale of cannabis, the country's National Drug Board said Thursday.
The board president Juan Andres Roballo said in a press conference it was a "fundamental step" in the implementation of the law, whose main objectives are to regulate consumption and fight against drug-trafficking and organized crime.
Until now, domestic cultivators and cannabis club organizers have been the only ones who have been able to benefit from the relaxed drug law in the country, with nearly 3,000 legal users, according to official sources.
A total 22 companies sent their proposals to produce and distribute cannabis, however only Simbiosis and Icorp were selected to begin production, initially with a cap of two tonnes per year.
Once the paperwork is completed, the companies will be allocated a state-owned land, in San Jose department (south-west), to begin cultivation, and will take another eight months before marijuana is sold at pharmacies, at an expected price of a little over a dollar per gram.
