International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 2, Winter 2018/Spring 2019 | Page 38

Initial Impact of the Legalization of Cannabis on Criminality in Uruguay
tries that began in the early 2000s has continued. Since that time, the Uruguayan
authorities have therefore been faced with the accelerating growth of slums, and
serious social fragmentation, 3 as well as increasing coca paste consumption.
Thus, alongside the trade in cocaine hydrochloride, increasingly exported
through the southern cone countries, coca paste (known as pasta base, or paco in
Spanish) made its appearance in Uruguay some time in 2001-2002. An attractive
option due to its low retail price (1 or 2 dollars), the economic crisis ravaging the
country at the time meant that it found a growing market. The large increase in
the consumption of coca paste became problematic because it was accompanied
by law-breaking and violence that Uruguayans associated, rightly or wrongly, with
consumption of the drug. A sharp increase in theft (burglaries and muggings) was
observed, along with an increase in cases of psychological breakdown coming to
public attention.
Moreover, this increase in the drug supply led to a clear increase in violent
deaths in the country, which had a murder rate 4 well below the Latin American
average. 5 This background of crime and disorder has fed into a strong public sense
of insecurity. A number of general opinion and victim surveys showed at the time
that two-thirds of Uruguayans saw public safety as the country's most serious
problem, reaching levels of perceived risk similar to those found in Venezuela and
Mexico, two countries that were in fact far more dangerous than Uruguay in terms
of criminality, homicide, and violence. 6 This low tolerance threshold, much lower
than that found in many other Latin American countries, was further reinforced
by the fact that the economic recovery experienced in the country since the end
of the 2000s has not been accompanied by a drop in levels of violence. In fact, the
opposite has been the case.
It was against such a background that this small state became the first country
in the world to legalize cannabis for other than medical reasons. The project is
therefore, as highlighted by Milton Romani, former Secretary General of the Junta
Nacional de Drogas, "a liberal vision that consists of reducing the criminal market"
7 in a context in which Uruguay is increasingly affected by acts of violence carried
out by criminal gangs. What put cannabis front and center of the Uruguayan
3 CANNALEX, Montevideo, December 2016.
4 According to the global study carried out by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime), the murder rate in Uruguay is one of the lowest in the Americas, with 7 deaths per 100,000
inhabitants, compared to 53.7 in Venezuela, 30.8 in Colombia, and an average of 16 per 100,000 in
Latin America as a whole (UNODC, Homicide Statistics 2013). In effect, these figures put Uruguay
at the same levels as European countries. The majority of murders are the result of interpersonal
conflict.
5 ONUDC, Homicide Statistics, 2013.
6 Chiara Fioretto, “Problèmes d’insécurité en Uruguay,” Sciences Po, 2014. Available at: https://
www.sciencespo.fr/opalc/content/problemes-dinsecurite-en-uruguay (accessed July 26, 2018).
7 Interview, CANNALEX, New York, UNGASS, April 2016.
35