INCB Members visit Uruguay to meet with government officials

A delegation from the INCB, presided by Werner Sipp, has visited Uruguay last Wednesday, 26 November 2015. The three members of the Board met behind closed doors with various officials from the Uruguayan government in charge of the country's drug policy, including Juan Andrés Roballo, President of the National Drug Policy Board [Junta Nacional de Drogas - JND], and the Advisory Scientific Committee [Comité Científico Asesor - CCA] in charge of monitoring the legal market for cannabis.

The visit took place against the backdrop of past strong critiques made by the INCB to the country's decision to regulate the cannabis market. In 2013, the INCB and its former President, Raymond Yans, had rebuked the recently approved Uruguayan legislation on the basis that it '[broke] the universally agreed and internationally endorsed legal provisions of the [Conventions on Drug Control]'; a position reiterated by the Board's 2014 Annual Report, which states that the law threatened the health of citizens and weakened international efforts to eradicate drug markets.

However, Susan Mallo and Luís Yarzabal, from the Advisory Scientific Committee, have said they appreciated the INCB members' openness and frank interest in understanding the different elements of Uruguayan drug policy. In their view, the Board's disposition seems to have changed from its past 'rigid and insensitive' critiques. Instead, the Board members would have expressed gratitude for the Uruguayan government's transparency and reliance on an objective evidence-base.

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