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Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court has taken a step toward ending marijuana prohibition nationally after the legislature failed to enact the policy change<\/a> by a court-imposed deadline.<\/p>\n Minister Norma Luc\u00eda Pi\u00f1a Hern\u00e1ndez, who serves on the high court, recently filed a general declaration of unconstitutionality with respect to Mexico\u2019s cannabis laws. And the body is expected to take up the issue on Monday.<\/p>\n El primer paso para la Declaratoria General de Inconstitucionalidad se ha dado. La ministra Norma Luc\u00eda Pi\u00f1a envi\u00f3 a la secretar\u00eda general de acuerdos el proyecto de DGI. En 10 d\u00edas h\u00e1biles al menos 8 ministrxs deber\u00e1n votar a favor de declarar inconstitucionales 5 art. de la LGS pic.twitter.com\/nq8TO80Gpy<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Cannabis Libre A.C. (@cannalibremx) June 11, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n This comes nearly three years after the Supreme Court first deemed the prohibition on personal marijuana possession and cultivation unconstitutional<\/a>, ordering lawmakers to institute a change. But while lawmakers have advanced legalization legislation in the years since, they have yet to approve a final bill.<\/p>\n Advocates are encouraged that the court is taking this action<\/a>, which would nullify parts of the Mexico Constitution that criminalize people over cannabis. But they\u2019ve emphasized that this does absolve legislators of their responsibility to develop regulations for a program of adult-use marijuana production and sales.<\/p>\n \u201cThe step the Court is taking increases the responsibility of the legislative branch in this matter,\u201d #RegulationPorLaPaz said<\/a> in a press release on Tuesday, according to a translation. \u201cIt is necessary to continue the legislative process so that the work that has been invested to date is consolidated in the modifications necessary to guarantee the rights of citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 #Regulaci\u00f3nPorLaPaz (@regulacionxpaz) June 22, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Eight ministers on the Supreme Court will have to vote in favor of passing the declaration of unconstitutionality in order for prohibition to be overturned.<\/p>\n This is far from an abrupt move on the court\u2019s end. When it ruled that marijuana criminalization unconstitutionally infringed on the rights of adults in October 2018, it set an initial deadline for lawmakers to change laws accordingly within a year. Then, at the request of lawmakers<\/a>, it approve extensions, setting deadlines for April 2020, December 2020 and finally April 30, 2021.<\/p>\n The Congress was unable to settle the matter by that latest deadline, despite having made progress in drafting and advancing legalization legislation.<\/p>\n This latest session, it seemed like the reform would finally be achieved. The Senate approved a legalization bill late last year, and then the Chamber of Deputies made revisions and passed it in March<\/a>, sending it back to the originating chamber. A couple of Senate committees then\u00a0took up and cleared the amended measure<\/a>, but leaders quickly started signaling\u00a0that certain revisions made the proposal unworkable<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the situation stood for weeks as the court\u2019s latest April 30 deadline approached. There was an expectation that the Senate would again ask the court for an extension, but that did not take place. Instead, lawmakers have begun floating the idea of holding a special legislative session in order to get the job done this year.<\/p>\n After the Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate-passed legalization bill, senators said that the revised proposal was critically internally conflicted\u2014on provisions concerning legal possession limits, the definition of hemp and\u00a0other\u00a0issues\u2014and lawmakers themselves could be subject to criminal liability if it went into effect as drafted.<\/p>\n But Senate Majority Leader Ricardo Monreal Avila said in April that if the court were to make a declaration of unconstitutionality before a measure to regulate cannabis was approved, it would result in \u201cchaos.\u201d<\/p>\n The top senator also talked about the importance of lawmakers taking their time to craft good policy and not rush amidst lobbying from tobacco and pharmaceutical industry interests.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must not allow ourselves to be pressured by interests,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Senate must act with great prudence in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Eduardo Ram\u00edrez Aguilar of the ruling MORENA party said in April that \u201cat this time, it is important to legislate in the terms that are presented to us<\/a>\u201d and then consider additional revisions to cannabis laws through subsequent bills.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the position many legalization advocates took as well, urging lawmakers to pass an imperfect bill immediately and then work on fixing it later.<\/p>\n Under the proposal, adults 18 and older would be allowed to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana and cultivate up to six plants for personal use. The deputies made changes that principally concern the regulatory structure, rules for the commercial market and licensing policies.<\/p>\n One of the most notable changes made by the Chamber of Deputies was that the revised bill would not establish a new independent regulatory body to oversee the licensing and implementation of the program as was approved by the Senate. Instead, it would give that authority to an existing agency, the National Commission Against Addictions.<\/p>\n Deputies also approved additional revisions to increase penalties for unauthorized possession of large amounts of cannabis, prevent forest land from being converted to marijuana growing areas and to require regulators to \u201ccoordinate campaigns against problematic cannabis use and\u2026develop permanent actions to deter and prevent its use by minors and vulnerable groups.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates had hoped for more. Throughout this legislative process, they\u2019ve called for changes to further promote social equity and eliminate strict penalties for violating the law.<\/p>\n While the bill would give priority for licenses to marginalized communities, advocates are worried that there might not be strict and specific enough criteria to actually ensure that ends up being the case. They also pushed for an amendment to make it so a specific percentage of licenses would be set aside for those communities, but that did not happen.<\/p>\n Monreal Avila, the Senate majority leader, said ahead of the Chamber of Deputies vote that there \u201cis no problem if they modify the cannabis law, we have no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is their job and their function. And on the return we will review whether or not they are appropriate,\u201d he\u00a0said<\/a>, according to a translation. \u201cThe idea is to regulate the use of cannabis and not ignore a prohibitionist approach that generated a great social problem in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, for his part, said in December that a vote on legalization legislation was\u00a0delayed due to minor \u201cmistakes\u201d in the proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The legalization bill\u00a0cleared a joint group of Senate committees<\/a>\u00a0prior to the full floor vote in that chamber last year, with some amendments being made after members informally\u00a0considered and debated the proposal<\/a>\u00a0during a virtual hearing.<\/p>\n Members of the Senate\u2019s Justice, Health, and Legislative Studies Committees had\u00a0approved a prior version of legal cannabis legislation<\/a>\u00a0last year as well, but the pandemic delayed consideration of the issue. Sen. Julio Ram\u00f3n Menchaca Salazar of the MORENA party said in April that legalizing cannabis could\u00a0fill treasury coffers at a time when the economy is recovering from the health crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n As lawmakers work to advance the reform legislation, there\u2019s been a more lighthearted push to focus attention on the issue by certain members and activists. That push has mostly involved planting and gifting marijuana.<\/p>\n In September, a top administration official was\u00a0gifted a cannabis plant by senator<\/a>\u00a0on the Senate floor, and she said she\u2019d be making it a part of her personal garden.<\/p>\n A different lawmaker\u00a0gave the same official, Interior Ministry Secretary Olga S\u00e1nchez Cordero, a marijuana joint<\/a>\u00a0on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies in 2019.<\/p>\n Cannabis made another appearance in the legislature in August, when Sen. Jesusa Rodr\u00edguez of the MORENA party\u00a0decorated her desk with a marijuana plant<\/a>.<\/p>\n Drug policy reform advocates have also been cultivating hundreds of marijuana plants in front of the Senate, putting pressure on legislators to make good on their pledge to advance legalization.<\/p>\n NYPD Marijuana Arrests Persisted Along Racially Biased Lines In Final Quarter Of Prohibition<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court Moves To End Marijuana Prohibition Itself After Lawmakers Fail To Act<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court has taken a step toward ending marijuana prohibition nationally after the legislature failed to enact the policy change by a court-imposed deadline. Minister Norma Luc\u00eda Pi\u00f1a Hern\u00e1ndez, who serves on the high court, recently filed a general declaration of unconstitutionality with respect to Mexico\u2019s cannabis laws. AndContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":48417,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48418,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48416\/revisions\/48418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\u00a1La Ministra Norma Luc\u00eda Pi\u00f1a Hern\u00e1ndez present\u00f3 un proyecto de Declaratoria General De Inconstitucionalidad en la @SCJN<\/a> para invalidar los art\u00edculos que prohib\u00edan el acceso a la #cannabis<\/a>! pic.twitter.com\/1V7w4IIPwu<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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\nRead More: Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court Moves To End Marijuana Prohibition Itself After Lawmakers Fail To Act<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"