Matilde Campodonico, The Associated Press
Diego Zas shows two bags of legal marijuana he just bought at the Antartida drugstore in downtown Montevideo, Uruguay, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Marijuana is going on sale at 16 pharmacies in Uruguay, the final step in applying a 2013 law that made the South American nation the first to legalize a pot market covering the entire chain from plants to purchase. 
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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay’s government announced Wednesday that it is changing its retail system for legalized marijuana because banks are making it difficult for pharmacies to sell cannabis as planned.
in order to follow international financial laws that ban receiving money tied to the drug, pharmacists and officials said.
To avoid the problems faced by pharmacies, Uruguay will set up shops to sell marijuana for cash, said government official Juan Andres Roballo.
at 16 pharmacies under a 2013 law that made Uruguay the first nation to legalize a cannabis market covering the entire chain from plants to purchase. Since then, at least three pharmacies have decided not to sell cannabis after warnings by banks.
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