Back in 2018, Mexico’s Supreme Court concluded in two separate rulings that the country’s ban on recreational cannabis was illegal. Mexican law states that once the chambers of the Supreme Court come to a similar ruling on a subject matter five times, the ruling becomes a binding precedent to other judges in the country. As such, the government would have to amend any policies that were not in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling on recreational cannabis consumption, which are now considered unconstitutional, within 90 days.
More than two years later, the Mexico Supreme Court has agreed to extend the deadline for legislators to legalize cannabis nationally again. Lawmakers have been working to enact the court-mandated policy change, but discussions have been plagued with disagreements. In addition, the sudden emergence of the coronavirus pandemic coupled with the resultant economic crisis pushed discussions to the side.
According to Chamber President Dulce Maria Sauri Riancho, the complexity of crafting cohesive cannabis regulation as well as the coronavirus pandemic “made it difficult” for lawmakers to move forward with cannabis legalization. This is the fourth such deadline extension the court has given lawmakers, with the original October 2019 deadline being extended first to April 2020, then December 2020 and finally April 2021.
Last month, the Senate approved a bill to legalize marijuana nationally, but for that bill to become law, the Chamber of Deputies must also pass it. The lawmakers will now have until the end of the next session, which starts in February and runs through April 30, to approve the legislation. I
f passed, the cannabis legalization bill would establish a regulated cannabis market in Mexico. Adults aged 18 and older would be allowed to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana as well as cultivate up to four cannabis plants for personal use. However, adults would require a regulator issued license to legally consume recreational marijuana.
The Senate version of the bill contained a few revisions, including the stipulation that adults aged 18 and older would be allowed to grow more than four plants, regulators would not be required to track cannabis plants grown for home consumption, and the government would have to clear the records of people who had been convicted of cannabis-related offenses within the past six months. Additionally, lawmakers did away with the ban against owning more than one type of cannabis license, thus allowing for vertically integrated businesses.
Zara Snapp, a legalization activist with the Instituto RIA as well as the coalition #RegulacionPorLaPaz, hopes lawmakers will make human rights and social equity the center of the cannabis legalization bill.
Back in the U.S., many firms are diversifying what is on offer from the cannabis industry. For example, The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (CSE: WTER) (NASDAQ: WTER) not only uses a state-of-the-art electrolysis process to produce alkaline drinking water, but it also offers a line of topical and edible products containing cannabidiol (CBD).
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