Photo Credit: Mexican Senate
Mexican lawmakers are on the verge of legalizing recreational marijuana nationally, and a legalization bill has just been unveiled. If it passes, it would make Mexico the third country in the world to have fully legal pot—after Canada and Uruguay.
“The end of the prohibitionist policy is good for the country,” Sen. Ricardo Monreal, the leader the MORENA Party in the Mexican Senate, told Reuters. Monreal promised a swift victory for the bill, which seems likely as MORENA and its allies hold majorities in both chambers of Congress. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico, promised he would sign the bill into law if it passes the legislative process.
According to a translation provided by Marijuana Moment, the bill includes provisions allowing anyone 18 or older to possess cannabis for personal use, cultivate up to four plants and purchase marijuana from licensed retailers. Low-income and indigenous people, rather than big corporations, would have priority when it comes to licensing, which would be overseen by an independent institute. The psychoactive potency of all legal marijuana would be tightly regulated, and edibles would be reserved to medical marijuana patients.
The bill is, among other things, an attempt to smother organized crime. Last week, Deputy Mario Delgado Carrillo, leader of the MORENA majority in the Chamber of Deputies, called for the legalization of all drugs, starting with cannabis. “It would be necessary to start now to regulate the drug market to eliminate these markets that give so much power to organized crime,” he announced.
Mexican Supreme Court Weighs In
This decision does not come out of the blue. Starting in 2015, the Mexican Supreme Court has issued five rulings stating that marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional, in particular due to “the right to the free development of the personality,” as guaranteed by the country’s constitution.
As per Mexican law, the fifth ruling, which was made in October 2018, possesses the force of law, binding all judges in the country to follow the Supreme Court’s decision. As such, cannabis benefited from a de facto decriminalization through the judicial branch. For the past year, anyone could get their charges thrown out for marijuana possession, use or cultivation thanks to the ruling.
However, a formal change of the law—which would be the only way to properly legalize marijuana, making it possible to sell it out in the open, tax and regulate it—needs to come from the legislative branch. Following the decisive ruling, the Mexican Supreme Court gave lawmakers until Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019, to establish the exact guidelines of recreational marijuana’s legalization.
The Senate took the order seriously, going so far as dedicating an entire section of its website and activity to cannabis, studying its effects and leading an international forum on the topic. Numerous tentative bills were drafted, before the definitive project was revealed. As such, it seems inevitable that marijuana will be legalized by the end of the year in Mexico; the bill is designed to go into effect immediately after passing.
