Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Castelan Cruz Ricardo/Eyepix/ABACA via PA Images

Mexico top court decriminalises recreational marijuana use

Pro-legalisation campaigners said the Supreme Court ruling left cannabis users facing many uncertainties.

MEXICO’S SUPREME COURT has decriminalised recreational marijuana use for adults, drawing a cautious welcome from activists who said users face a “legal vacuum” until lawmakers pass a stalled legalisation bill.

“Today is a historic day for liberties,” court president Arturo Zaldivar said, after eight of the 11 judges backed the decision declaring the drug’s prohibition under the health law to be unconstitutional.

The ruling comes after Congress failed to enact legislation allowing recreational marijuana use by an 30 April deadline set by the country’s highest court.

The landmark bill was approved by the lower house in March but still needs final approval by the upper house, the Senate.

In April, the ruling majority in the Senate said it was considering postponing the final discussion on the law until September.

The Supreme Court urged Congress to issue the necessary legislation “in order to generate legal certainty.”

Legal obstacles

Pro-legalisation campaigners said the Supreme Court ruling left cannabis users facing many uncertainties.

Mexico United Against Crime, a non-governmental organisation, said the decision “does not decriminalise the activities necessary to carry out consumption” such as production, possession and transportation of marijuana.

The ruling “leaves a legal vacuum with respect to the consumption, cultivation and distribution of cannabis,” it added, calling on Congress to issue the necessary legislation.

Veteran pot legalisation activist Jorge Hernandez Tinajero, who is part of the Mexican Association of Cannabis Studies, was also skeptical about the announcement.

“They do not dare to go further,” he said, adding that recreational users still faced legal obstacles to possessing marijuana.

Massive market

One consequence of the court ruling is that recreational users will be able to obtain a permit from national health regulator Cofepris more easily, said Adriana Muro, director of rights group Elementa.

“What had happened on previous occasions was that Cofepris denied those permits,” she told AFP.

“Now that permission has to be given automatically,” she added.

But that does not open the door to commercialisation or personal possession of more than the five grams already allowed, said Francisco Burgoa, a constitutional lawyer and professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

“Congress urgently needs to legislate, but I think that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is not personally in favour,” he told AFP.

The legislation would make Mexico, home to 126 million people, one of just a few countries, including Uruguay and Canada, to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

Cannabis use for medicinal purposes has been decriminalised in Mexico since June 2017.

Experts say the legal recreational market could be worth billions of dollars in Mexico, where authorities seized 244 tons of marijuana in 2020.

The legalisation push is partly aimed at curbing drug-related violence that claims thousands of lives each year in the Latin American nation.

More than 300,000 people have been murdered since the government deployed the army to fight the drug cartels in 2006.

© – AFP, 2021 

Author
View 26 comments
Close
26 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tomaldo
    Favourite Tomaldo
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 9:20 AM

    Great, r u watching Micheal Martin

    214
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross
    Favourite Ross
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 9:34 AM

    @Tomaldo: will never happen until Britain, France, Germany do it first.. We are followers not leaders.

    167
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mickety Dee
    Favourite Mickety Dee
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 9:38 AM

    @Ross: indoor smoking ban?

    80
    See 14 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross
    Favourite Ross
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 9:44 AM

    @Mickety Dee: it’s already been illegal for a very long time Mickety.. And rightly so.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alan Byrne
    Favourite Alan Byrne
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 9:56 AM

    @Ross: I think his point is that we were a leader with banning indoor smoking.

    77
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stefan Epure
    Favourite Stefan Epure
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:01 AM

    @Alan Byrne: Irelad is one of theese countries that quuck to ban anything. The way government is making everyone look like alcoholics is wrong, minimum alcohol pricing then they will put up the levy like the ciggarettes to eventualy ban it. So if thats the take country has on drink we are dreaming if we think we will gave a legal smke before the next 5 years.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross
    Favourite Ross
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:03 AM

    @Alan Byrne: what’s indoor smoking rules got to do with the decriminalisation of recreational use of cannabis though? There’s no correlation.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Munster1
    Favourite Munster1
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:04 AM

    @Ross: stop digging Ross

    50
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Lyons
    Favourite Brian Lyons
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:13 AM

    @Ross: plastic bad levy, indoor smoking ban, same sex marriage, 1st in Europe for those

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tomo
    Favourite Tomo
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:20 AM

    @Brian Lyons: We weren’t the first in Europe to recognise same sex marriage. We were the first by popular vote, the rest were just legislated in parliament.

    Also if a plastic bag levy and smoking ban are the only issues we can lead on, there’s a serious problem. Why can’t be try huge education reform? Drug policy reform? Listen to the experts, create policy, et voila. They’re simply too lazy to do anything.

    48
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross
    Favourite Ross
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:22 AM

    @Charmaine ☘ Irish: indoor smoking has literally zero, nothing to do with the subject matter at hand, read the article please… We might have lead by example in completely different areas.. But not on this subject???

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Clancy
    Favourite Paul Clancy
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:36 AM

    @Ross: you said we are followers not leaders. Plenty of examples of where we led, dont forget the Dunnes workers. These are all social issues where Ireland has led, similarly cannabis use is a social issue. There is the correlation for you.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Garreth mc mahon
    Favourite Garreth mc mahon
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:38 AM

    @Ross: okay Ross, I think it’s time to leave, you’ve definitely had too much

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross
    Favourite Ross
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:46 AM

    @Garreth mc mahon: speak what you say and say what you mean… Because your meaningless comment has said absolutely nothing

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Lyons
    Favourite Brian Lyons
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 11:50 AM

    @Tomo: woooosh

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Duffy
    Favourite David Duffy
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 12:06 PM

    @Ross: I like that you said that ‘we are followers not leaders’ and then when confronted with times we were leaders, you just said it’s irelevent and made it seem like the other people were crazy for bringing it up. It’s a bold and risky move for a debate and I respect that.

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alan Byrne
    Favourite Alan Byrne
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 12:06 PM

    @Ross: Chill Ross, I agree we certainly don’t lead and never will when it comes to cannabis. I’ve been waiting over 40 years already and I don’t honestly expect anything to change here in the next 10 years. I hope I’m wrong.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Black Iron Tarkus
    Favourite Black Iron Tarkus
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 11:07 AM

    It’s absurd to think that cannabis is illegal in any country in 2021. There is not a single benefit to prohibition. Not one.

    101
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Doherty
    Favourite Declan Doherty
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 11:09 AM

    Cannabis should never have been criminalised in the first place. Full legalisation is a certainty across the majority of the world and the countries that are waking up first will stand to gain the most. Unfortunately we don’t elect leaders in this country so we’re already missing out on a golden opportunity to build a homegrown industry with massive tax generation and a once in generations opportunity for our farmers to diversification for our farmers.

    83
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Doherty
    Favourite Declan Doherty
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 11:10 AM

    Once in a generation opportunity for our farmers to diversify into something far more profitable.

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Byrne
    Favourite Paul Byrne
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 11:54 AM

    @Declan Doherty: There were plans for Bord Na Mona to start growing medical marijuana a few years back which would have been a good starting point but looks like those plans have been put on hold.

    22
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tomo
    Favourite Tomo
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 5:10 PM

    @Declan Doherty: Yep, we could be exporting to the whole EU single market but nope, our current government in clamping down on cannabis more than the previous three have.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe ryan
    Favourite Joe ryan
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 12:00 PM

    Same coming in Ireland, in 2050,

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sam Murray
    Favourite Sam Murray
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 10:01 AM

    Fumar más al verde !

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clare McAfee
    Favourite Clare McAfee
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 1:15 PM

    Hey john s, look at this! What a shocker :)

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute JustBEERbarry
    Favourite JustBEERbarry
    Report
    Jun 29th 2021, 6:55 PM

    @Clare McAfee: john is staunchly opposed to regulation. He prefers illegality and all that goes with it.

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds