Is Cannabis / THC legal in Uruguay?

Also known as: weed, marijuana

Legal status

Legal and regulated, not merely decriminalised, and the regime is closed to visitors. Ley 19.172 of 20 December 2013 rewrote article 3 of Decreto-Ley 14.294 and article 3 now permits, with prior authorisation from the Instituto de Regulación y Control del Cannabis and under its direct control, domestic cultivation for personal or shared use in the home, cultivation by membership clubs, pharmacy dispensing under licence, medicinal patient associations added by Ley 19.847, and non psychoactive hemp under the agriculture ministry. Cannabis psicoactivo is defined in article 3 as the flowering tops of the female plant with natural tetrahydrocannabinol at or above one per cent by volume, and hemp as material not above one per cent. The plant nevertheless remains listed: the Anexo I enacted by article 6 of Decreto 198/025 of 25 September 2025, which substitutes the whole consolidated list rather than adding to it, published in the Diario Oficial of 3 October 2025 and carried there only as page images, which have now been read: 526 entries across its three annexes, carries "cannabis" and "resina de cannabis y extractos y tinturas de cannabis" in the Estupefacientes section at Lista Amarilla, Lista I, and "cannabis" and "resina de cannabis" again at Lista Amarilla, Lista IV. The annex prints entry names in capitals; they are given here in lower case. The version horizon, stated outright because an absence without one expires silently and says nothing about having expired: the annexes were read as at 25 September 2025, the date of the decreto that enacts them, from the Diario Oficial page images of 3 October 2025, and the power that moves it is article 15 of Decreto-Ley 14.294 in the wording given to it by article 2 of Ley 17.016. The replacement of the whole annex that the earlier cell could not rule out has happened and has been read, and so have the three generic groups made under article 8. This does not rule out a later individual entry or a later decreto. Note also that the annex read here is dated before the international removal of cannabis from Schedule IV, understood to have been decided in December 2020, which is carried here and was not re-derived from any text I fetched [Likely, carried]. So the legality of cannabis in Uruguay is not the absence of a schedule entry; it is a set of exemptions written into the statute itself [Certain]. Two amending Laws carry this row and both are named because the articles are theirs: article 1 of Ley 17.016 of 22 October 1998 gave article 3 of Decreto-Ley 14.294 the wording that article 5 of Ley 19.172 then replaced, article 2 of Ley 17.016 gave article 15 the wording under which the annex was made, and its article 3 gave articles 30 to 35 the wording they descend from [Certain, read from the amendment notes on the consolidated text and from Ley 17.016 itself]. The annex this row rests on is the current one and it was read from the source, not inferred. Article 6 of Decreto 198/025 does not add to the 2020 annex, it substitutes its own Anexo I for the whole consolidated list, and article 8 adds a control with no counterpart in Decreto 265/020: "Quedan sujetas a control todas aquellas sustancias que se encuadren dentro de los grupos genericos incluidos en el ANEXO II", all substances falling within the generic groups of its Anexo II. The official site carries those annexes only as Diario Oficial page images, 174 carillas of the edition of 3 October 2025, number 31.766, and they have been read: Anexo I Estupefacientes at carillas 7 to 12, Anexo II Sicotropicos at 12 to 21 ending in the three generic groups, Anexo III Tablas I and II at 22 to 24, 526 entries in all. The optical character recognition of those pages is not sound enough to search: it carries only about 400 of the 526 entry names and none of the fourteen on carilla 24, so the entries were read off the page images by eye and every statement here about what the annex prints rests on that reading [Certain as to what the annexes print].

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Article 26 of the Constitution provides that "A nadie se le aplicará la pena de muerte", no one shall have the death penalty applied to them, and no limb of Decreto-Ley 14.294 provides a capital sentence [Certain]. Every one of the three adult use channels is closed to a visitor. Article 8 of Ley 19.172 provides that registration of the cultivation is "requisito indispensable para poder ampararse en las disposiciones de la presente ley", an indispensable requirement in order to shelter under the law. Decreto 120/014 confines domestic cultivation to capable adults of Uruguayan natural or legal citizenship or accredited permanent residence, registered in the cannabis register (article 15), membership of a club to the same class of person (article 25), and purchase to capable persons over eighteen of Uruguayan citizenship or duly accredited permanent residence who are entered in the register (article 34), who must attend the pharmacy in person (article 35). A tourist cannot register, cannot buy, cannot grow and cannot join a club [Certain]. The limits, for those who qualify: up to six psychoactive female plants per dwelling with the harvest not exceeding 480 grams a year; clubs of not fewer than fifteen and not more than forty five members, up to ninety nine plants, and not more than 480 grams a year per member; and pharmacy purchase of up to 10 grams a week to a maximum of 40 grams a month. Article 39 of Decreto 120/014 authorises possession for personal use and deems up to 40 grams of marijuana to be that quantity, and article 31 of Decreto-Ley 14.294 says the same and adds the harvest of up to six plants and a club member’s share. Outside those exemptions the ordinary offences apply: article 30 punishes unauthorised production of psychoactive cannabis with twenty months of prisión to ten years of penitenciaría, and article 31 punishes unauthorised trafficking conduct with two to twelve years, three to twelve where an organised criminal group is involved. Both of those bands are Ley 19.172's work: its article 6 wrote the cannabis production band into article 30 and its article 7 wrote the personal use exemption into article 31, each later replaced, article 31 finally by article 68 of Ley 19.889 of 9 July 2020, and both articles descend from article 3 of Ley 17.016 of 22 October 1998 [Certain]. Article 40 of Decreto 120/014 forbids smoking it in enclosed public places, workplaces including public transport, and health and teaching premises, and article 11 of Ley 19.172 forbids every form of advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Marijuana from the home grow, research and patient association routes may not be pressed [Certain]. The cell this replaces recorded that pharmacy cannabis is sold at a government set price and from strains controlled by the institute; that is carried forward and was not re-derived from the decree text [carried]. Article 36 provides four to fifteen years for its listed aggravations and five to twenty years where the victim dies. Its numeral 1, supply to a person under twenty one, and its numeral 6, using a home as a place of sale or storage, are limited in terms to "las sustancias a que se refiere el artículo 1° de la presente ley", and this row is one of those substances, so both reach it. Numerals 4 and 5 speak of "el delito" generically [Certain]. The annex this row rests on is the current one and it was read from the source, not inferred. Article 6 of Decreto 198/025 does not add to the 2020 annex, it substitutes its own Anexo I for the whole consolidated list, and article 8 adds a control with no counterpart in Decreto 265/020: "Quedan sujetas a control todas aquellas sustancias que se encuadren dentro de los grupos genericos incluidos en el ANEXO II", all substances falling within the generic groups of its Anexo II. The official site carries those annexes only as Diario Oficial page images, 174 carillas of the edition of 3 October 2025, number 31.766, and they have been read: Anexo I Estupefacientes at carillas 7 to 12, Anexo II Sicotropicos at 12 to 21 ending in the three generic groups, Anexo III Tablas I and II at 22 to 24, 526 entries in all. The optical character recognition of those pages is not sound enough to search: it carries only about 400 of the 526 entry names and none of the fourteen on carilla 24, so the entries were read off the page images by eye and every statement here about what the annex prints rests on that reading [Certain as to what the annexes print].

If prescribed or medical

Two separate routes exist and neither is open to a visitor. Non medicinal pharmacy dispensing needs registration under article 8 of Ley 19.172 and the citizenship or permanent residence condition of Decreto 120/014 article 34; medicinal supply needs a doctor’s prescription, and article 3 of Decreto-Ley 14.294 as amended adds patient associations of fifteen to one hundred members with a treating doctor and a pharmaceutical chemist. Article 111 of Decreto 454/976 prohibits outright the circulation in transit through national territory of narcotic or psychopharmacological substances coming from and destined for abroad [Certain]. No allowance for a traveller carrying cannabis, medicinal or otherwise, into or out of Uruguay was found in the reachable official text, so that question is deferred rather than answered.

Documentation

A visitor cannot lawfully obtain cannabis in Uruguay through any channel, so there is no document that makes it lawful for one. A resident or citizen using a legal channel must be entered in the cannabis register kept by the Instituto de Regulación y Control del Cannabis, and a pharmacy purchaser must attend in person. Registration is done at Correo Uruguayo branches on an original Uruguayan identity card showing natural or legal citizenship or permanent residence. Carry any prescribed medicine in its original packaging with the prescription and declare it at the border.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Uruguay’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.