It was at the end of November that Mexico decided to move forward with legislation to legalize marijuana for a variety of uses in the country.
The U.S. will now be situated in between two countries that allow recreational marijuana to be legal. Mexico and Canada. However Mexico will be the largest country in the world, by population of over 125 million people, to legalize marijuana.
The bill, which has been approved by the Mexican Senate, will establish a regulated cannabis market to allow those eighteen and older to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana. It additionally allows a personal cultivation provision for individuals to cultivate up to four plants for personal use.
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that the bill is “part of carrying out a revolution of consciences, where each of us is responsible for his actions.”
“The development of freedoms is very important,” López Obrador said at a press conference in response to a question about whether legalizing cannabis is could be a “Trojan horse that corrupts the health of young people and leads to a higher crime.”
“Things do not have to be prohibited, prohibited, prohibited,” the president explained. “If something is authorized, if something is allowed, well, act responsibly. I believe that this will happen in this new legislation on the use of marijuana. Have confidence in people and seek do good.”
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 82 to 18 and has been formally transmitted to the other body of the nation’s Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.
The bill “seeks to regulate the use of cannabis and its derivatives, under the approach of public health, human rights and sustainable development, to prevent and combat the consequences of the problematic use of psychoactive cannabis and to contribute to the reduction of the crime incidence linked to drug trafficking,” the Chamber’s Board of Directors said in an announcement about receiving the legislation, according to a translation.
The bill will also promote “peace, security, and individual and community well-being,” legislative leaders stated.
