VIDEO - The Cannabis Industry In The First Country To Legalize, Uruguay, And Who's Benefiting

Friday marked the release of the second episode of LEGAL, a documentary series hosted by Facu Santo Remedio and presented by El Planteo that focused on the cannabis industry in the first country to legalize marihuana for adult use, Uruguay.

* Watch Chapter II: Damián Larzábal below. Turn on closed captions and auto translation to get English subtitles.

Meet Damián

"Today, the plant is my life", says Damián Larzábal, protagonist of the second episode of LEGAL.

See also: LEGAL: New, Stunning Web Series Looks Into The First Country To Legalize Cannabis And The People Thriving Thanks To It

Larzábal grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Montevideo, La Teja. Over time, he became a consolidated cannabis entrepreneur in Uruguay and beyond.

From the neighborhood of his youth, Damián says: "In this corner where we are sitting, where I grew up, in the old days, if you sat down and the police caught you smoking, they would put you against the wall and hit you in the ribs."

And he continues: "Luckily that has already changed and today we are sitting here, on the corner of my house, quietly smoking joint."

Larzábal emigrated to Spain in 2001. There, a colleague from the mechanical workshop where he worked at introduced him to the world of cultivation. "He taught me what real marijuana was, because what we knew was pressing," he recalls.

Furthermore, in 2010, Damián witnessed the boom in grow shops in Spain, and visited Spannabis, the largest cannabis fair in Europe. With all that data, the Uruguayan native ready to take the leap.

Meanwhile, in Latin America, curiosity about marijuana began to be aroused. In a didactic role, Larzábal taught how to make compost and fertilizers via YouTube and established contact with the fans of the Southern Cone by sending them seeds.

In 2018, back in Uruguay, he founded Montevideo Indoor Grow Shop in La Teja. In the words of the businessman: “It is not only a grow shop. It is a studio where we were able to integrate hairdressers, barbers and tattoo artists. The vision of our project is different, all kinds of people come to the studio ”.

The host and guest also visited Montevideo Indoor Coffee Shop, a more tourist-oriented proposal, and Larzábal's next project, a clinic / spa and a hostel.

"If you believe in this plant, then get up, cultivate it and it will give you your way," concludes Damián reflectively.