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Mac Margolis

Uruguay Finds No Banks for the Bongs

The country's legalization of the cultivation, sale and consumption of marijuana runs afoul of the U.S. Treasury.
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Photographer: Miguel Rojo/AFP/Getty Images
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Understated and simpatico, former Uruguayan president Jose Mujica isn't easily rattled. Just don't mess with his reefer.

That was the message from Montevideo last week when a state-owned lender, Banco Republica, followed several private banks in shutting down accounts of clients who deposited money from marijuana sales -- a direct blow to the Mujica era's marquee policy of making Uruguay the first country to legalize the smoking, growing and selling of marijuana nationwide.