Mexico will be the largest legal cannabis market in the world

by Team Inc.

2021-01-02-Mexico becomes the largest legal cannabis market in the world

Mexico is home to the world's most powerful drug cartels, which have been terrorizing the country for years. But the country is now poised to legalize marijuana. The new law aims to boost civil liberties and curb drug cartels.

While the law still faced some challenges, it now seems likely that Mexico will become the world's largest legal cannabis market. This is because Congress is finalizing legislation in the coming weeks to legalize weed throughout the supply chain. From cultivation to distribution and from distribution to consumption. The Mexican Senate passed a law in late November that legalizes recreational marijuana. Lawmakers say they will pass a bill by February.

Regulating marijuana

Currently, one can possess up to five grams of marijuana in Mexico without being arrested. The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has been legal since 2017. “We are committed to regulating cannabis. It is a right of Mexicans, ”said Ignacio Mier, the majority leader in the Mexican lower house and member of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Morena party, in an interview.
Mexico's highest court ruled in 2018 that the ban on marijuana was unconstitutional. The court acted after several lawyers filed lawsuits for legalization. One group even took over a small park for the Mexican Senate and planted about 800 cannabis plants to pressure lawmakers. Activists harvest the plants and smoke the buds.

Agreement on new cannabis law

Mier said lawmakers and senators will work together in January to agree on a joint bill that will be put to the vote in both houses. The changes will make Mexico the third country in the world after Uruguay and Canada to legalize cannabis nationally for recreational use, and the largest country with a potential consumer market of 88 million adults.

The legalization of Mexico will more than double the number of people worldwide who have access to legal marijuana, creating momentum for global legalization, said Maritza Perez, director of the Office of National Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance - a US-based advocacy group. legalization. The legalization of Mexico is also likely to put more pressure on the overall legalization of cannabis in the United States. Fifteen US states have legalized recreational marijuana, including California and Illinois. Oregon recently became the first state to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs, even heroin and cocaine.

Eliminate illegal cannabis market

Authorities expect that Mexico's legalization for recreational use will increase competition, lower prices and reduce the black market of drug gangs. About 200 organized crime groups are active in Mexico. Where, according to government estimates, about 2006 people have died since 270.000, most of them in cartel-related violence.

However, analysts say legalization will only have a marginal impact on drug gangs. Today, cannabis makes up only a small percentage of the gang's profits, whose main sources of income are cocaine, synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and gas theft. Cartels also extort small businesses across Mexico.

Decrease in cannabis seizures

The number of marijuana seizures at the US-Mexico border has fallen by about 2015% since fiscal year 83. An indication that cannabis smuggling is a declining activity for the Mexican cartels. "Anyone who thinks this law will be a panacea to reduce crime and murder is too optimistic," said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former intelligence officer.

War on drugs

The Mexican military has largely been deployed since 2006 to deal with increasingly powerful cartels. At the time, murders soared as rival gangs fought each other and with security forces. Mexico's move to legalize marijuana is part of a broader movement of countries to try new approaches to tackle abuse of harmful drugs by users and to use the networks that supply them.

Over the past decades, that policy has focused almost exclusively on a law-and-order approach, trapping drug users and trying to disrupt the global supply chains of illicit drugs. Portugal, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Argentina, Costa Rica and Mexico have introduced a form of decriminalization with regard to the possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use. That has led to a decrease in the transmission of HIV and other infectious diseases and to fewer overdose deaths, said Ms. Perez of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Activists say the current bill doesn't go far enough to help create a legal industry that can compete effectively with cartels. Under Senate law, consumers could publicly possess up to 28 grams of marijuana and grow up to eight plants per household. Possession of more than 28 grams would be subject to fines, and at 200 grams it would be a crime punishable by imprisonment.

Illegal versus legal

Businesses and individuals could produce, distribute, sell, export and import cannabis under strict guidelines and permits issued by newly established regulators. A process that is expected to be long and expensive. ”The Senate bill envisages an over-regulated market that will inevitably increase costs for legal players, making it difficult for them to compete with the illegal market,” said Juan Francisco Torres Landa, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells who fought for years to legalize cannabis in Mexico. "This excessive regulation will also leave the entire process vulnerable to government corruption."

Read more bangkokpost.com (Source, EN)

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