PABLO PORCIUNCULA via Getty Images People take part in a demo for the legalization of marijuana in front of the Legislative Palace in Montevideo, on December 10, 2013, as the Senate discuss a law on the legalization of marijuana's cultivation and consumption. Uruguays parliament is to vote Tuesday a project that would make the country the first to legalize marijuana, an experiment that seeks to confront drug trafficking. The initiative launched by 78-year-old Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, a former revolutionary leader, would enable the production, distribution and sale of cannabis, self-cultivation and consumer clubs, all under state control. AFP PHOTO/ Pablo PORCIUNCULA (Photo credit should read PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP/Getty Images)

Uruguay’s government is about to start selling marijuana as a source of revenue, and some officials are hoping Canada’s medical marijuana producers will be able to provide them with a supply — because that’s “where the best quality is.”

But that could prove difficult, as Canada’s medical marijuana users face a possible shortage themselves when a new medical pot regime kicks in this April.

As part of a raft of revolutionary reforms to the country’s marijuana laws, the Uruguayan government is planning to start growing and selling its own marijuana, as a source of revenue. And as of last December, Uruguayan households can grow up to six plants with an annual harvest of up to 480 grams.

But officials are worried the government won’t be able to develop the large-scale cultivation operations in time for the rollout of its new marijuana business, and they hope Canada will be able to fill the gap.

“To start with, we will have to buy cannabis,” said Lucia Topolansky, a Ururgayan senator and wife of President Jose Mujica, as quoted at GlobalPost.

“I think that we’re going to buy it from Canada, because that’s where the best quality is.”

But Canada’s marijuana laws are also undergoing reform, and in a way that some critics and medical pot patients say is a step backward.

Under rules coming into force next month, medical marijuana patients will no longer be able to grow their own weed, nor buy it from small-scale growers licenced by Health Canada. Patients with a pot prescription will be able to buy weed from a licenced, large-scale manufacturer.

Many patients who grow their own weed say they will see costs skyrocket if they have to buy it at retail prices (Health Canada's own projections back up that assertion), and some say they will no longer be able to afford marijuana in the quantities they’ve had it prescribed.

But so far, Health Canada has licenced only 10 manufacturers to grow weed for the program, and that has some patients worried about a potential shortage.

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