It’s been nine months since this South American country became the first in the world to fully legalize and regulate cannabis, but with crackdowns by banks and bureaucratic backlogs, getting recreational pot is a challenge. Stephanie Nolen investigates.
The pharmacist stuffed a fistful of crumpled peso notes into a drawer in the counter, then leaned against it with a sigh. “It’s like time travel,” he said. “I’ve gone back to the 1950s. They closed my bank account, all my services – I can’t even write a cheque.”
He began to sell marijuana in his pharmacy nine months ago, when, with great fanfare, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize – and fully regulate – the sale and use of every type of cannabis product. There were lines out the door of his small shop on a leafy residential street in the capital.
And then, just weeks later, the pharmacist found himself cut off from the entire financial services market when Uruguay’s banks announced they would shut down the accounts of every business associated with the newly legal industry, after they were warned that they risked being in violation of U.S. drug laws and could lose their access to U.S. banks and dollar transactions.
Stephanie Nolen – Globe and Mail – March 24, 2018.
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