Uruguay Could Export Pot For Medical Purposes As Government Seeks To Become Laboratory ‘Hub’

The Associated Press reports that Uruguay, which recently became the first country in the world to create a government-overseen market for legal marijuana, may be looking to turn itself into what presidential spokesman Diego Cánepa called a “hub for biotechnology” in an interview with local daily El Observador on Monday. Cánepa said that foreign firms have expressed interest in starting laboratories to explore the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and added that Uruguay is open to the possibility of working with foreign labs.

The AP notes that although new law doesn’t address the question of whether the government could export pot for those purposes, it could do so after a government commission rules on it in April. Cánepa acknowledged, in his interview with El Observador, that the sale of cannabis to foreign labs “wasn’t the objective of the law”. But he added, “It’s true that they’ve consulted us about setting up in Uruguay, which entails a big challenge. It’s very important for all that it implies. Even if it wasn’t the objective of the law, Uruguay is going to transform into a hub for biotechnology. It’s an area with a huge amount of competition but which is seeing real development.” Canada's government is already in talks with Uruguay to import marijuana for medicinal purposes, he noted.

“Until not too long ago, medical marijuana was only thought of as an analgesic, but not it’s being studied for possible medicines to be derived from it,” he said. El Observador notes that two pharmaceutical drugs contain marijuana – one, Epidiolex, which is used for childhood epilepsy, and another, Sativex, which is used in more than 20 countries to relieve muscle rigidity caused by multiple sclerosis. Activists and growers are said to have been analyzing the possibility of development of a medicine similar to Sativex in Uruguay.