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Abstract
Cannabis Social Clubs (CSCs) have been regulated in Uruguay for over a decade, and the first registered CSC opened in Montevideo in 2015. This commentary discusses how the CSC model fared vis-à-vis increasing legal supply of recreational cannabis products in pharmacies. We identify five key developments, drawing on latest administrative data and fieldwork conducted in Uruguay. First, the number of CSCs and their registered members has steadily increased, reflecting both sustained demand and institutional stability. Second, while CSCs remain concentrated in Montevideo and the coastal region, their geographical presence has expanded, and they now operate in every Uruguayan province. Third, most CSCs have shown remarkable longevity, with relatively few closures —suggesting the stability of the model over time. Fourth, CSCs have played a consistent and significant role in the volume of cannabis distributed legally in the country, often approaching or even surpassing the cannabis volume sold in pharmacies. And fifth, although accessing cannabis through CSCs tends to be more expensive than through pharmacies, their product diversity and cultivation practices continue to attract members, reinforcing their position within the legal supply ecosystem. We reflect on possible challenges for CSC development, including the co-existence of different types of CSCs, their relationship with other legal market operators (such as pharmacies), as well as the eventual entry into medical cannabis supply.
Introduction
In 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to regulate Cannabis Social Clubs (CSC), alongside home cultivation and sales of non-medical cannabis in pharmacies (Queirolo, 2020). Uruguayan residents need to register with the government regulatory agency to legally access cannabis via one of these three ways. CSCs need to follow several regulations in order to become an authorized cannabis supplier, including with regards to minimum and maximum membership size, location, facilities, safety and security (Queirolo et al., 2016). Before the introduction of this regulatory framework for CSCs in Uruguay, the model already had a long history in Europe, with the first documented CSCs emerging in the early 1990s in Spain and subsequently being set up in other European countries (Blickman, 2014; Jansseune et al., 2019; Pardal et al., 2020; Pares & Bouso, 2015). However, early implementations of the CSC model were neither formally permitted nor regulated, and therefore CSCs in Europe operated, at their own risk, outside a clear regulatory framework (Araña & Parés, 2020; EMCDDA, 2016; Pardal, 2018).
Since implementation of the CSCs in Uruguay, two countries in Europe, Malta (in 2021) and Germany (in 2024) have established regulated frameworks for the CSC supply model.1 As in Uruguay, CSCs in Malta and Germany must operate as nonprofit associations, exclusively serving their members, and can legally produce and supply herbal cannabis only. But legislators in these countries have also made unique regulatory choices. For example, in Malta and Germany, CSCs are allowed to enrol up to 500 users per CSC – while in Uruguay the cap is set at 45 members per CSC. The quantity of cannabis which members can obtain from CSCs also varies across these countries (40 g/month in Uruguay vs 50 g/month in Malta and Germany – but with a lower threshold of 30 g/month for members aged between 18 and 20 in the latter, who will also only be able to obtain cannabis with a maximum THC content of 10 % in Germany and 18 % in Malta) (Manthey, Rehm & Verthein, 2024). In Uruguay, there are no THC thresholds for cannabis produced by CSCs, nor other restrictions concerning the cannabis strains cultivated. On-site consumption of cannabis is prohibited in the two European jurisdictions while in Uruguay it is permitted.
One decade after the introduction of legal CSCs in Uruguay, it is timely to examine the latest developments from that country, building and expanding on earlier studies of the rollout of the CSC model in Uruguay in earlier stages of its implementation (Álvarez et al., 2022; Pardal et al., 2019; Queirolo et al., 2016). We draw on a review of secondary data gathered by the Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA), and insights from interviews collected as part of ongoing studies of the implementation of cannabis legalisation in Uruguay.2 Ten years of experience with regulating and implementing this supply model provide important lessons for Uruguay as well as for other jurisdictions considering regulating CSCs. In this brief commentary, we focus on five key insights from Uruguay’s experience, specifically: 1) the number of regulated CSCs and their membership over time; 2) the geographical distribution and presence of CSCs across the country; 3) the length of operation of CSCs; 4) CSCs’ contribution to the volume of cannabis sold legally in the country; and on 5) other key features of operation of CSCs. The emphasis is on showing the institutional stability and economic sustainability of CSCs. The implications for public health are not explored in depth in this article. We also reflect on likely future directions for the model in the country, which can be informative for other jurisdictions interested in the model (Pardal, 2022).
Key developments since the introduction of regulated CSCs in Uruguay
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1. The number of legal CSCs and their membership has grown over the past decade
From October 2014, setting up a legal CSC became possible in Uruguay (Queirolo et al., 2016). Since the start of the roll out, the number of newly registered CSCs increased from 14 (in the first year of implementing CSCs in 2015) to 115 in 2024, with higher numbers of newly registered CSCs in the past three years (2022–2024) – see Fig. 1. As of September 2025, the 518 active Uruguayan CSCs had 17,446 registered users (IRCCA, 2025). Before cannabis legalisation in Uruguay, CSCs were not operating in the country; their subsequent establishment indicates that there was engagement with this model once the legal framework enabled its operation. The inclusion of CSCs in the regulatory framework as a legal supply option followed demands from civil society groups (Hoorens et al., 2024; Von Hoffmann, 2020) – suggesting awareness of CSC experiences in other countries at the time.
Fig. 1. Overview of active CSCs based on year of registration (2015–2022).
Source: Own construction based on data from IRCCA.
In Uruguay, users seeking to obtain cannabis from a legal outlet (rather than cultivating it at home),3 have two options: to purchase cannabis at CSCs or at pharmacies. Only a small number of pharmacies (a total of 46 by mid-2025) have been integrated into the supply scheme for nonmedical cannabis (sourced from licensed producers and overseen by IRCCA). A total of 80,101 registered cannabis users have selected pharmacies as their channel of supply (Table 1), though the available data suggests that only a portion of those are frequently participating in the market. For example, of those registered to buy cannabis via pharmacies in 2023, approximately half made one or more purchases during the past six-month reporting period (IRCCA, 2023a, p. 13, and 2023b, p.10).
Table 1. Key access and supply figures across the three legal models in Uruguay.
| Empty Cell | Registered consumers (as of September 2025) | Dispensed volume of cannabis (total in 2024) | Number of points-of access (September 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSCs | 17,446 | 3375 kg | 518 CSCs |
| Pharmacies | 80,101 | 3206.9 kg | 46 pharmacies |
| Home-grow | 11,030 | n/a | n/a |
The Uruguayan law restricts the size of CSCs (i.e. the number of registered users per CSC), but there is no cap on the number of CSCs that can operate in the country. In practice, this has meant that in Uruguay we see a relatively high number of associations, but they remain relatively small. At the time of writing (2025), CSCs have an average of 34 registered members (17,446 members / 518 CSCs). This represents an increase from 2018, when CSCs typically had about 25 registered members on average (mean value).4 Nevertheless, Uruguayan CSCs are relatively small associations compared to the number of members allowed for CSCs in Malta or Germany, as well as the documented practices of unregulated CSCs in other European countries (Manthey et al., 2024; Pardal et al., 2020).
The actual number of individuals consuming cannabis produced by a CSC is likely higher than the official numbers of registered CSC members. Indeed, access to CSC-produced cannabis has also taken place through informal, social supply, for instance, when CSC members share cannabis with non-registered users, through sharing and splitting of costs of CSC membership between a member and one or more non-members (so-called ‘shared memberships’) (Pardal et al., 2019). Such practices are not formally permitted under the regulatory framework, which requires individual registration and prohibits redistribution to non-registered users. There are also some indications of CSCs illegally selling cannabis to non-registered users (Repetto et al., 2024).
Most CSCs continue to be based in the capital Montevideo and the coastal region, but are now present in every province
The increasing number of CSCs operating in Uruguay over the last decade has contributed to a wider geographical coverage of the model. As depicted in Fig. 2, there are currently active CSCs in every Uruguayan province. The presence of about 37 % of the CSCs (192/518 CSCs) in the capital seems to reflect populational density, as about two thirds of the Uruguayan population is based in the metropolitan area of Montevideo (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 2023).
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