Uruguay was the very first country to fully legalize marijuana nationwide back in a 2013 vote.
It has since been struggling to meet the demand since legal marijuana went on sale in the country last year.
Uruguay’s lawful stores are in competition with illegal dealers.
The country’s head of National Drugs Council, Diego Olivera said to The Associated Press, “The demand is greater than our productive capacity. We have to address that challenge.”
According to Olivera, there are about 20 to 25 metric tons of cannabis are consumed yearly by Uruguay’s population of 3.5 million.
The Associated Press has reported that many pharmacy owners in the country are not keen on selling marijuana in their stores as profit margins will be low and they are scared of being robbed.
“When it becomes a question of either selling cannabis or keeping your bank account, then, of course, most of these pharmacies are choosing the latter,” remarked John Walsh, a drug policy expert at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), speaking to U.S. News and World Report.
