MEXICO CITY – Lawmakers in Mexico passed a bill on Wednesday to legalize recreational marijuana, a milestone for the country, which is in the midst of a drug war and could become the world’s largest marijuana market , leaving the United States between two neighboring marijuana sellers.
THE 316 votes to 129 in Mexico’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, came more than two years after the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that the ban on recreational marijuana was unconstitutional and more than three years after the country legalized medical marijuana.
The chamber approved the bill in general terms on Wednesday night, before moving on to a lengthy discussion of possible revisions introduced by individual legislators. In its final form, however, the measure is widely expected to pass the Senate before being sent to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who signaled support for legalization.
The move, starting on Wednesday night, would allow adults to smoke marijuana and, with a license, grow a small number of cannabis plants at home. It would also grant licenses to producers – from small farmers to commercial producers – to cultivate and sell the crop.
“Today we are at a historic moment,” said Simey Olvera, a member of the governing party Morena. “As a result, the false belief that cannabis is part of Mexico’s serious public health problems has been left behind.”
If enacted, Mexico would join Canada and Uruguay on a small but growing list of countries that have legalized marijuana in the Americas, giving further impetus to the legalization movement in the region. In the United States, Democrats in the Senate have also pledged to drop the federal drug ban this year.
For “Mexico, given its size and its worldwide reputation for being harmed by the drug war, taking this step is extremely significant,” said John Walsh, director of drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group USA. “North America is moving towards legalization.”
In Mexico, however, the project proved to be divisive.
Critics say it is unlikely to cause a serious drop in the rising rates of cartel-fueled violence in Mexico and argue that it is not welcome in a country where nearly two-thirds of people are opposed to legalizing marijuana, according to recent research .
“It is a political fad,” said Damián Zepeda Vidales, a senator from the opposition National Action Party and one of the bill’s biggest detractors. “It is a matter of politicians, of an elite that now has powers in Congress and in the government that wants to impose a way of life on society.”
Security experts agree that the law’s practical impact on violence is likely to be minimal: with 15 US states already legalizing marijuana, they argue, cultivation has become a relatively small part of the Mexican drug trafficking business, with cartels focusing on more lucrative products like fentanyl and methamphetamines.
“We must not overestimate the power of this bill,” said Falko Ernst, a senior analyst in Mexico for the International Crisis Group, a global research organization. The bill will not “substantially change the dynamics and factors of lethal conflict in Mexico”.
Proponents of marijuana legalization say the project is very limited in scope, even though it represents a symbolic advance in the effort to end a drug war that has claimed about 150,000 lives, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Legalization “is an important step towards peacebuilding in a country like ours, where, for at least a decade or more, we have been immersed in an absurd war,” said Lucía Riojas Martínez, a Mexican congressman who made headlines in 2019 when he gave a marijuana cigarette to the country’s interior minister, Olga Sánchez Cordero, after giving a speech in Congress.
“But this project is far from achieving that,” she added.
It is also unclear how much the law will benefit Mexico’s poor farmers, who have grown marijuana for decades and often end up in the midst of conflicts between belligerent drug trafficking groups.
The bill dictates that small farmers and indigenous people have priority in licensing, but only stipulates that these vulnerable groups can receive more than one license.
And without additional state policies to combat organized crime, particularly in areas where marijuana is grown, said Ernst, these well-intentioned requirements may be unable to have a significant impact on farmers in cartel-controlled regions.
“For most areas where these high-conflict environments exist,” said Mr. Ernst, there are not enough state resources to really tackle organized crime groups.
But many entrepreneurs, at least, are seeing the green.
With more than 120 million inhabitants, Mexico would represent the largest marijuana market in the world by population. The crop could become big business in Mexico, a potential financial boost for an economy hard hit by the coronavirus crisis.
“It is an excellent economic, natural, ethical and moral solution for a country in need,” said Juan Sánchez Mejorada, chief executive of Ceres Soluciones, a medical cannabis company.
“Doing it right could give Mexico an economic surplus,” he said.
That kind of fervor makes pro-marijuana activists nervous.
“It is a law for the rich and marijuana should be for everyone,” said Ivania Medina Rodríguez, 18, a local activist. “They are looking for business before the rights.”
Dressed like a giant cannabis leaf, Ms. Medina was participating in a protest last year that started at a small marijuana plantation outside the Senate offices in Mexico City, where residents now regularly come to smoke marijuana while the police close the eyes.
Some activists fear that the law will openly favor large corporations that can obtain what the project calls a “full license”, giving them access to the entire marijuana supply chain, from seed to sale, while leaving small producers and sellers prevented from the lucrative market.
The bill in Mexico would allow individual users to load up to 28 grams of marijuana and grow six cannabis plants at home. Cannabis can also be purchased by adults over 18 at authorized companies and grown on a larger scale by licensed groups. Medical marijuana, which Mexico legalized in 2017, would be regulated separately by the ministry of health, which published rules in January covering the cultivation and research of medical cannabis.
Local advocates say ownership restrictions will limit the project’s impact, especially for low-income consumers, who may be victims of police extortion, a regular occurrence in Mexico.
“We live in a country where corruption and extortion are the norm,” said Zara Snapp, co-founder of the RIA Institute, a drug policy research and advocacy group based in Mexico City.
Still, for many proponents in Mexico, passing the bill is a notable step on the long journey toward full legalization.
“It’s like when you’re running a marathon and you haven’t started yet – running the first meter helps start the discussion,” said Sánchez, the marijuana entrepreneur. “It means taking the starting shot, even if we still have 42 kilometers to go.”