{"id":48521,"date":"2021-06-28T10:57:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T18:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/06\/28\/mexicos-supreme-court-strikes-down-marijuana-prohibition-after-lawmakers-fail-to-act\/"},"modified":"2021-06-28T13:45:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T21:45:30","slug":"mexicos-supreme-court-strikes-down-marijuana-prohibition-after-lawmakers-fail-to-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/06\/28\/mexicos-supreme-court-strikes-down-marijuana-prohibition-after-lawmakers-fail-to-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court Strikes Down Marijuana Prohibition After Lawmakers Fail To Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Nearly three years after Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court ruled that the nation\u2019s marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional<\/a>, it voted on Monday to end criminalization on its own because lawmakers failed to pass a legalization bill by a key deadline.<\/p>\n

The court in 2018 ordered the legislature to enact a policy change. But while both chambers of the Congress advanced reform legislation in varying forms\u2014and required multiple deadline extensions to do so\u2014it was ultimately unable to fulfill that obligation on time<\/a> by the end of the most recent session.<\/p>\n

Minister Norma Luc\u00eda Pi\u00f1a Hern\u00e1ndez, who serves on the high court, filed a general declaration of unconstitutionality<\/a> earlier this month, setting the stage for Monday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n

The 8-3 vote means that marijuana possession and cultivation for personal use will be legal nationally. The Ministry of Health would still have some regulatory authority with respect to permitting personal cultivation, but people will no longer need to submit requests for legal protections through a more complicated judicial process.<\/p>\n

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Advocates say this decision underscores the need for legislators to expeditiously pass a measure to implement a comprehensive system of legal and regulated sales. They want to ensure that a market is established that\u2019s equitable, addresses the harms of criminalization on certain communities and promotes personal freedom.<\/p>\n

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Los efectos del proyecto: la Secretar\u00eda de Salud, a trav\u00e9s de COFEPRIS, tendr\u00eda que autorizar el autocultivo de #cannabis<\/a> para fines de consumo personal adulto. Esto NO significa que todo el mercado de cannabis sea legal ni que quienes consuman queden excentos de limitaciones.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lisa S\u00e1nchez (@lismarybaby) June 28, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Lawmakers came close to achieving that goal over the past three years\u2014but failed to get the job done.<\/p>\n

The Senate approved a legalization bill late last year, and then the Chamber of Deputies\u00a0made 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

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Con esta decisi\u00f3n, COFEPRIS no podr\u00e1 negarte tu permiso de cannabis, aunque \u00e9ste sigue siendo un requisito indispensable para poder consumir legalmente. Los delitos relacionados con el cannabis siguen estando vigentes si no cuentas con \u00e9l.<\/p>\n

\u2014 M\u00e9xico Unido (@MUCD) June 28, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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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,\u00a0it 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

Meanwhile, in the U.S., conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday denounced the federal government\u2019s inconsistent approach to marijuana policy<\/a> and suggested that it may necessitate a reevaluation of an earlier ruling that upheld prohibition.<\/p>\n

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Slams Feds\u2019 Marijuana Stance As \u2018Contradictory\u2019 And \u2018Unstable\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court Strikes Down Marijuana Prohibition After Lawmakers Fail To Act<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court Strikes Down Marijuana Prohibition After Lawmakers Fail To Act<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly three years after Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court ruled that the nation\u2019s marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional, it voted on Monday to end criminalization on its own because lawmakers failed to pass a legalization bill by a key deadline. The court in 2018 ordered the legislature to enact a policy change. ButContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"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\/48521"}],"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=48521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48522,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48521\/revisions\/48522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}