Medical marijuana is headed south of the border. A medical marijuana bill was voted through Mexico’s senate last December, and after majority support (347-7) from Mexico’s Lower House of Congress, President Enrique Peña Nieto has decriminalized cannabis consumption and legalized medical marijuana, Leafly reports.
Last year, a series of public debates were held in different Mexican states on the efficacy of medicinal cannabis. Since then, President Peña Nieto decided “We must move beyond prohibition to effective prevention.”
There have been 90,000 casualties as the result of a failed drug war against the Mexican Cartels, according to the Humans Rights Watch. 129 journalists have been reported dead or missing since 2000, The New York Times reports. Being a journalist in Mexico was compared to being a war reporter in Somalia or Afghanistan in the same article.
President Peña Nieto told the United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions in April 2016 that current solutions to control crime, violence and drugs are “frankly insufficient.”
Last November, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that laws against personally producing, processing and consuming cannabis were illegal, and not for public health reasons. The court ruled cannabis was a natural born right of Mexican citizens, The Atlantic reports.
With cannabis use being protected by Mexico’s constitution and the money and jobs being generated here in the United States, it’s easy to speculate that Mexico will eventually venture down the recreational marijuana path too, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. If Washington is any example, there are many more trials in store. Washington’s medical system is far from perfect, and it’s one of the oldest ones in the country, being legalized back in 1998.
None the less, President Peña Nieto’s decree is a huge step forward in drug policy for Mexico, and reducing the drug cartels presence in the region.
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