MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico’s lower house on Wednesday passed a marijuana legalization bill, which puts the country on track to become one of the world’s largest legal marijuana markets.
Deputies passed the legislation in general terms, but continued to debate details until well into the night. The approved legislation, which is due to return to the Senate, would allow recreational use of marijuana, but would establish a licensing system required for the entire chain of production, distribution, processing and sale.
It would also require people, and not just user associations, to have a permit to grow plants for personal use. Each individual would be allowed to have six floors with a maximum of eight per household.
Adults could use marijuana without affecting others or children, but if they caught them with more than one ounce (28 grams) they would be fined. They could face jail if they weighed more than 5.6 kilograms (12 pounds).
Opposition parties did not support the legislation, which they say will lead to an increase in drug use.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled in favor of recreational marijuana use. In 2019, the court ordered the government to create legislation, arguing that banning its use was unconstitutional.
The court has given lawmakers until April 30 to pass a law.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has expressed his support and his party, Morena, has a majority in the congress that moves the legislation. However, with campaigns underway for national legislative elections in June, the final form of legislation continues to evolve.
Critics fear that some changes made by the lower house will threaten the original intention.
For example, in the latest version, lawmakers ended up establishing a new specific government agency for marijuana regulation. Instead, the management of the new market will go to the National Commission Against Addictions, which according to experts does not have the capacity to regulate something so complex.
“They will make the law inoperative,” said Lisa Sanchez, director of Mexico United Against Crime, one of the non-governmental organizations that has been pushing for the legalization of marijuana for years.
Lawmakers who favor the bill say it will move the marijuana market from the hands of Mexico’s powerful drug cartels to the government.
But experts fear that transnational corporations will be the main beneficiaries rather than consumers or farmers who have formed the lowest tier of the drug chain.
Medicinal use of marijuana has been legal in Mexico since 2017 and is allowed in several Latin American countries. But only Uruguay allows recreational use in the region.
Even if the Senate passed the lower house bill without further changes, it would take time to become effective. A whole regulatory framework should be developed. This has been the case for medical marijuana, which only started operating in January with the establishment of the necessary regulations.