The underlying intention of its legalization policies is to take business away from the contintent’s deadly narco businesses.

Uruguay’s bid to allow the sale of recreational marijuana in pharmacies, under its revolutionary law that fully legalized the production, sale and consumption of marijuana in 2013, is due to come into force this month.

Becoming the first country in the world to uphold such drug policies, Uruguay’s intentions, tabled under the leadership of leftist guerrilla-turned-former President Jose Mujica, is to take business away from the contintent’s deadly narco businesses.

For the country’s citizens, the policy is life-altering.

"No one has to go to the village to get (marijuana) anymore. Traffickers no longer care about marijuana, they do not leave them money. They go to other drugs. When I see the problems that exist in other countries for smoking I consider myself fortunate," Lucas Lopez, who recently opened a marijuana dispensary in Montevideo, told El Pais.

The marijuana sold in pharmacies is being grown by private companies on state-supervised farms, one of which is Symbiosis.

"...The drug in pharmacies is going to be for infrequent consumers, young people or even older people who want to use it against pain,” said one of the company’s shareholders, Gastón Rodríguez. “This is a huge achievement for my generation, who grew up (under a) dictatorship, when they stopped you for smoking a joint.”

Rodriguez said that Uruguay’s next priority will be to develop medicinal marijuana, something it can be a world leader in.  

Uruguay has set very clear regulations surrounding its marijuana legalization.

Under the law, buyers must sign up to a national registry of users, in order to ensure they have fulfilled licensing procedures and do not exceed the monthly maximum purchase of 40 grams (1.4 ounces).

And in order to prevent tourists from coming to the country for solely its marijuana laws, only Uruguayans are allowed to grow the drug in their homes or buy it from 30 official pharmacies.

“Mujica will go down in history for this. In 30 years it will look like normal in many countries. Uruguay thus regains its liberal avant-garde tradition," enthused Eduardo Blasina, the curator of a cannabis museum in Montevideo.