Marijuana in Mexico remains in legal limbo even after Supreme Court ruling

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – One month after the historic Mexican Supreme Court ruling that lifted the ban on the recreational consumption of marijuana, recreational cannabis remains in a confusing legal limbo, as it is still criminalized in the Penal Code and the government has yet to grant permits for individual consumption.

“We see a contradiction between these two laws that govern us. It is something worrying, and we have to demand this change,” said Zara Snapp, co-founder of the RIA Institute, which investigates drug policies in Mexico, in an interview with Efe news agency.

After the failure of the Mexican Congress to regulate recreational cannabis, the Supreme Court of Justice approved on June 28 a historic ruling that overturned the articles of the General Health Law that prohibit the consumption of recreational marijuana.

The magistrates ordered the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris), which belongs to the Ministry of Health, to issue permits to consume, cultivate and carry marijuana to those of legal age who request it. At the same time, the commercial sale of cannabis remains prohibited.

MARIJUANA IS STILL PENALIZED

But almost a month later, the health regulator has not designed the mechanism of authorizations and sources of the organism informed that the matter “continues under review.”

Therefore, consumers are still unprotected, since without that permit and with the Penal Code in hand, they can still be arrested and receive jail sentences for carrying more than five grams of cannabis.

The background is not good, given that it took the Mexican government three years to establish a regulation for medical marijuana, legalized in the country in 2017.

“It’s a limbo. Symbolically it is a big step, but within the legal field, it leaves us with a taste in our mouth of being left to decide,” said Tito Garza, a lawyer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Installed in two improvised camps where marijuana consumption is tolerated, one in front of the Senate for more than a year and another more recent one in front of the high court, the Mexican Cannabis Movement demands the institutions clarify the situation.

“We don’t agree with this permit because whether you want to or not, they are going to give you a certain limit on the number of plants you can grow, and that would be violating our rights,” said 25-year-old Edgar Aguilar, a young man.

Like so many other people, Edgar has suffered arrests and extortion for smoking in the street, so the so-called Plantón 420 demands dignified treatment from the authorities in addition to totally free consumption.

“I want to be able to carry more than five grams; why is the government going to tell me what I have to carry if they don’t tell me in beers or tobacco?” he questioned.

THE BALL IS BACK IN CONGRESS

The Supreme Court decided after Congress ignored three times the order given by the magistrates to regulate the recreational use of marijuana in Mexico, a country that only recognizes medical cannabis.

The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies kept passing the buck until April 30 was the third and last deadline to pass a law that would have made Mexico the third country in the Americas to legalize recreational marijuana at the national level, after Uruguay and Canada.

“The court was giving ultimatums. That shows the legislators’ complete disregard for the Court and this particular issue. It is not an issue they have on the agenda or that they want to carry it out; there is no political will,” Garza opined.

Now it is back in the hands of Congress, where the majority National Regeneration Movement (Morena) to harmonize the Penal Code with the Supreme Court ruling, as well as to regulate the market and commercialization of marijuana in the country, something that was left out of the Court’s decision.

Zara Snapp sees “a little bit complicated” that the Senate takes up again in the new legislature in September decriminalizing the marijuana market, because the legislators no longer have the Court’s deadlines on their shoulders.

This is despite the great potential of Mexico, the world’s second-largest cannabis producer after Morocco, whose legalization would generate more than 22 billion dollars in four years, according to the Latin American Cannabis Alliance (Alcan).

In this sense, the co-founder of the RIA Institute stressed that moving towards legality would allow the State to collect a lot of taxes: “Today the market exists, but the State is not generating profits and has the possibility to do so,” she concluded.