It was Monday this week that Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto issued a decree that confirmed the country’s legalization of cannabis.
It was back in April that the country’s Lower House of Congress had passed the bill and now it’s a law. The Guardian reported back then that Mexico’s law would stop criminalizing consumption and it would authorize the use of medicines made from a base of marijuana and/or the drug’s active ingredients.
It’s been heavily speculated that Mexico would legalize the plant considering that President Pena Nieto has been openly against legalization and said he never smoked it in his life.
The legalization however could be great for the country’s growing drug cartel problem where it could be a tax on one of their revenue sources.
The news was first reported by Jon Hiltz at Marijuana.com.
The decree was issued by the president on Monday and has specified that the Ministry of Health will be responsible for drafting and implementing the regulations of “public policies regulating the medicinal use of pharmacological derivatives of cannabis sativa, indica and Americana or marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol, its isomers and stereochemical variants, as well as how to regulate the research and national production of them.” The only cannabis that will be permitted must contain 1% or less of tetrahydrocannabinol and it’s up to the Ministry of Health to create the infrastructure for the medical marijuana program by studying the effects of the drug in a medicinal and therapeutic way.
“The ruling eliminates the prohibition and criminalization of acts related to the medicinal use of marijuana and its scientific research, and those relating to the production and distribution of the plant for these purposes,” stated the Lower House of Parliament.
