The Mexican Senate is well on its way to endorsing recreational cannabis by December |

The discussion of cannabis reform in general, if not in the recreational sector, has been simmering south of the Rio Grande since 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of four people who had grown their own cannabis for personal use. The court was pretty straight forward on this, literally ruling that the cannabis ban violated a person’s human right to freedom of expression.

However, the path of legal reform so far has been rocky.

In June 2017, President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a law authorizing medical use.

The Supreme Court, however, wasn’t ready (and clearly believed this law didn’t go far enough). On October 31, 2018, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that access to cannabis is literally a personal right and the ban on cannabis is unconstitutional.

Since then, the forward anchoring of the decision in law has not only made repeated ball drops but also COVID. The court has also given legal extensions to the backward legislature, but the writing is on the wall. This year, at the end of June, the court spoke up again, rejected the cannabis law that had been passed and effectively decriminalized recreational consumption. There can be no more delay.

Therefore, the President of the Mexican Senate, Olga Sánchez Cordero, assumes that the recovery reform will finally come into force from December 2021.

It’s not that they have a wide range of choices. But the fact that such a senior politician, and a woman at that, is now making public statements about it matters in Mexico.

Not to mention, of course, north of Mexico’s most famous, if not accidentally placed, river.

What could recovery reform in the north and south of the US do domestically?

One of the reasons recreational cannabis is so strategically interesting in Mexico is, of course, that it will lock the US in between two neighbors who have continued adult use.

This won’t be a critical factor in moving the issue domestically, but it will undoubtedly increase the volume of the voices now calling for reform in the US

However, aside from encouraging federal reforms, at least of the medical kind, Mexican cannabis presents an even more compelling (if potentially threatening) specter for the first time. Namely, the import of cannabis grown in the Mexican recreational market but destined for the United States

It’s not that other agricultural products haven’t come this way. Not to mention “illegal” drugs of any kind, including cannabis, of course.

Ironically, especially given US influence in Mexico, particularly during the drug war, Mexico will lead the way.

One thing is certain. Since December 100 years of prohibition politics have disappeared.

What next?

Those who expect Mexico to suddenly become a Club Med cannabis experience may have some of their expectations broken. The new law will not create a separate agency to monitor and regulate the emerging industry, but rather an existing one – the National Commission Against Addiction Diseases. Adults over the age of 18 are allowed to grow up to six plants for personal use and have up to 28 grams of flowers.

However, penalties for illicit possession (those under the age of 18) will increase, mainly to prevent forest land from being converted into cannabis-growing areas and to force regulators to launch coordinated campaigns against problematic cannabis use, including by minors.

Not everyone is satisfied with the upcoming adoption of a very overdue legislative proposal. Proponents had hoped to include the language better to accommodate priority licensing permits for marginalized communities. While the bill prioritizes the same thing, it doesn’t provide a certain percentage of licenses for it.

Lawyers had also encouraged lawmakers to lift the toughest penalties for violating the law, calling them counterproductive.

Of course, nothing is ever perfect.

However, there is clearly a national shift in sentiment towards a leisure future. The country’s Supreme Court has now ruled twice that full reform is inevitable. And since the political wind has turned, senators have even been given gifts to joints and plants in public in recent years.

It certainly sounds very different from the current debate north of the border.