The national flag of Uruguay flying on a windy, cloudless day.

Gabriel Millos

Uruguay Moving Legal Cannabis Sales from Pharmacies to Cash-Only Shops

Officials in Uruguay are moving retail cannabis sales from pharmacies to shops that will sell the products for cash, the Panama Post reports. The move comes less than a month after banks said they had to close accounts of pharmacies participating in the state-run program due to international anti-money laundering laws.

Three of the 16 pharmacies had stopped selling cannabis due to the banking issue.

According to an Associated Press report, Uruguayan law requires employees and salaries be paid by direct deposit, which makes it tough to run a cash-only business in the South American nation. Uruguayan officials had said they did not anticipate the banking issue when they legalized cannabis nationwide in 2013.

Juan Andrés Roballo, assistant secretary of the presidency, called the move a “provisional solution” to the banking and cannabis sales problem.

“This is an exceptional situation that enables exceptional solutions,” he said in the report. “The best, and definitive (solution), would be a change in legislation (in the United States).”

The Post indicates that there are currently around 13,500 people registered with the state to purchase cannabis products; in early August the number hovered around 11,500. Most of the participating pharmacies report that their 2-kilogram supplies are often gone quickly after it goes on sale.

 

Get daily cannabis business news updates. Subscribe

Have an additional perspective to share? Send us a message to let us know, and if your comment is chosen by our editors it could be featured here.

End


Ganjapreneur is made possible by our partners:

Latest Cannabis News

View all news Get email updates

Featured Business Profiles

Create a profile View all categories

From Our Partners