Sen. Ricardo Monreal, the leader of Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party in the upper chamber of Congress, said in an interview that a vote on the proposal will take place later this week or next week. “The end of the prohibitionist policy is good for the country,” he said, adding that the bill would regulate personal use and sale of marijuana as well as research into the plant. It also contemplates creation of cooperatives that would grow marijuana plus a new regulatory agency. If approved by the Senate, the proposal would then proceed to the lower house for a vote. MORENA and its allies hold majorities in both chambers. While the leader of MORENA in the lower house, Mario Delgado, has proposed that the government tightly administer a future marijuana market, Monreal was noncommittal.

During the past century of cannabis prohibition, a steady flow of illegal marijuana has been smuggled across the border from Mexican farms to American stoners. But as increasing numbers of U.S. states are legalizing cannabis, the flow of Mexican weed to the States has begun to slow, and is now even reversing, thanks to middle-class Mexican citizens who are crossing the border to sample some of California's premium pot. Medical and recreational cannabis dispensaries in San Diego and other nearby cities have reported seeing more and more Mexican citizens traveling to check out their wares.

Mientras los mercados globales comienzan a obtener grandes beneficios del cultivo, proceso y comercialización de la mariguana, México –uno de los principales productores a nivel mundial– se está tardando, consideró Lorena Beltrán Franco, directora general de la organización CannabiSalud. Lamentó que en el país existan aún muchas trabas para despenalizar la mariguana en sus diferentes usos, especialmente en el rubro de la salud. Ante la lentitud para legislar a nivel federal, sugirió que sean los estados y los consumidores quienes promuevan la regularización mediante amparos y obtener un permiso para su cultivo y consumo privado, como ya ocurre, aunque en muy contados casos. (Véase también: Rechaza AMLO crear empresa estatal para comercializar mariguana)

The coordinator of the MORENA party at the Lower Chamber Mario Delgado Carrillo presented an initiative for the creation of a legal market for the purchase and sale of marijuana with the creation of a public company, owned by the government, called Cannsalud. The firm will be exclusively authorized to perform the purchase of cannabis and its derivatives from those that have obtained the corresponding licenses for such means. The initiative also considers the possibility for Mexicans to be able to grow their own cannabis. “Without the need of a license, they would be able to own, grow, harvest, prepare, or process up to six cannabis plants, as long as they are for personal use, allowing, too, shared use at home.”

After decades of strict drug policy, Mexico’s congress is expected to pass a federal law this year that would for the first time create a legal cannabis trade in the country—the Senate passed the bill in November, and the lower house is set to vote on it this spring. But many of Mexico’s marijuana proponents are still opposed: The bill would allow for a cannabis industry on terms that they say favor corporations, and would still impose fines and prison sentences on people without connections or power. If the current version passes, advocates ask, who would the law be for? Mexico’s cannabis market is projected to be worth $5 billion within a few years, according to the National Association of the Cannabis Industry. Canadian and US companies are ready to swoop in.

It's the moment for which advocates of legal marijuana here have been waiting: Mexican lawmakers, working under a court order, have until mid-December to finalize rules that will make the country the world's largest market for legal pot. Advocates have long argued that legalization would put a dent in the black market; allow for safe, regulated consumption; create jobs; and cut down on crime. But rather than counting down the days with glee, they’re waging an 11th-hour campaign to change legislation that they say would favor large corporations over small businesses and family-owned farms, while doing little to address the issues at the root of the country’s illegal drug trade.

On November 19, the Senate began debating a bill that would make Mexico the third country in the world, after Uruguay and Canada, to legalise cannabis for recreational use nationwide. For Mexico, the change seems riskier. It was once the world’s largest producer of cannabis. Campaigners for legalisation are watching how it will go in a country where organised crime is strong, the rule of law is weak and much of the economy is undocumented. Mexico’s route to legalisation has been unusual, and its arrival may yet be delayed. In contrast to the U.S., where voters have endorsed reform in state referendums, legalisation has little popular support in Mexico. Surveys suggest that just over a third of voters favour it. (See also: Mexican Senate approves cannabis legalization bill, ending monthslong delay)

Mexico’s health ministry published rules to regulate the use of medicinal cannabis, a major step in a broader reform to create the world’s largest legal cannabis market in the Latin American country. The new regulation, signed off on by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will now allow pharmaceutical companies to begin doing medical research on cannabis products. The cannabis reform taking place includes the recreational use of marijuana and would create the world’s biggest national cannabis market in terms of population. The new medicinal rules state companies that wish to carry out research have to obtain permission from the Mexican health regulator, COFEPRIS, and this research has to be done in strictly controlled and independent laboratories.

Mexico is on the verge of becoming the third country in the world, after Uruguay and Canada, to legally regulate cannabis for personal, adult use. This comes after years of strategic litigation, a landmark Supreme Court declaration and a legislative process of over two years in the Senate. The country can almost taste legal regulation. It was a long and winding road to get this point. As the world’s second-largest producer of illicit cannabis and one of the countries most harmed by prohibition, Mexico approaches legal regulation with specific objectives—primarily of freeing up state resources that have been badly used to implement prohibition and of increasing social justice. But moving from discourse and rhetoric to affirmative actions and justice mechanisms can be complicated.

Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he would consider legalizing certain drugs as part of a broader strategy to fight poverty and crime. Speaking in the state of Zacatecas, Lopez Obrador said that a recent proposal from the country's defense minister, who backed legalization of opium for medicinal use, was important and that he would not rule out anything. "It's important what he proposed," Lopez Obrador said. "There should be a comprehensive approach to the terrible problem of insecurity and violence."

El Gobierno de México publicó las normativas para la producción y uso medicinal de cannabis y derivados farmacológicos. La reglamentación llega después de la reforma de la ley General de Salud en 2017 y después de que en el 2019 la Corte Suprema obligara a la secretaria de Salud a avanzar con el proceso. Ahora, el Congreso se prepara para legalizar el uso recreativo de marihuana, un movimiento que convertiría a México, con una población superior a los 126 millones de habitantes, en el mercado legal de cannabis más grande del mundo. El interés de las grandes empresas productoras extranjeras se ha vuelto un foco de preocupación para activistas mexicanos, que temen que las regulaciones favorezcan mayormente a los intereses comerciales, y sobre todo extranjeros.

A study released by a respected Mexican think tank asserts that proposals to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado, Oregon and Washington could cut Mexican drug cartels' earnings from traffic to the U.S. by as much as 30 percent. Opponents questioned some of the study's assumptions, saying the proposals could also offer new opportunities for cartels to operate inside the U.S. and replace any profit lost to a drop in international smuggling.

Mexico’s supreme court has struck down laws prohibiting the use of recreational marijuana, moving the country toward cannabis legalisation even as the country’s congress drags its feet on a legalisation bill. The court ruled that sections of the country’s general health law prohibiting personal consumption and home cultivation of marijuana were unconstitutional. Adults wanting to cultivate and consume their own cannabis will be able to apply for permits from the health secretariat. Criminal penalties for possessing more than five grammes of marijuana or selling the drug remain in place. The supreme court first granted injunctions in 2015 in favour of four applicants seeking injunctions to consume and grow marijuana. (See also: The Supreme Court is forcing Mexico to legalize weed, sort of)

Casi un año después del histórico fallo del Supremo mexicano que levantó la prohibición del consumo lúdico de la marihuana, el cannabis recreativo continúa en un confuso limbo porque no se han otorgado permisos de autoconsumo ni el Congreso ha legislado en la materia. Este 20 de abril, en el Día Mundial de la Marihuana, los activistas y defensores de derechos humanos vinculados con el consumo de la planta coinciden en que no existe voluntad política para regular el consumo. Ello puesto que mientras que muchas iniciativas de ley han pasado por el Congreso y el Senado en los últimos años y se les ha dado pronta resolución, con la marihuana la situación es completamente distinta. (Véase también: Exigen ante el Senado aprobar la ley para regular el consumo de mariguana)

Senate majority leader Ricardo Monreal expects a law to be passed before December for recreational use of the drug, allowing regulated private firms to sell it to the public. Indeed the legal cannabis industry is already a multi-billion-dollar global trade, and some big players, including Canada’s Canopy Growth and The Green Organic Dutchman, and a unit of California-based Medical Marijuana Inc, told Reuters they were eager to tap the new Mexican market. While a growing cannabis industry promises to be a money-spinner, it faces resistance from campaigners who are worried that regulations for both medical and non-medical cannabis will heavily favor big, often foreign corporations.

The commissions of Justice, Health, and Legislative Studies of Mexico’s Senate broadly approved the ruling that seeks to regulate cannabis. During over two hours of discussion, senators from different parties generally approved, with 26 votes in favor, 7 against, and 8 abstentions, the document that proposes the regulation of cannabis from a medical, recreational, and industrial perspective. Likewise, the ruling proposed the creation of a Law for the Regulation of Cannabis, as well as reforms and additions to several dispositions of the General Law on Health and the Federal Penal Code. The approval does not mean that it has been endorsed by all parties but that now, specific points of the document must be reviewed and discussed in the plenary. (See also: The time when drugs were legal in Mexico)

Cannabis has an image of being a relatively harmless drug. But all drugs carry a degree of risk, and cannabis is no exception. One of those risks is dependence, which many people assume is only something that happens to those who use “hard drugs”, such as crack or heroin. In fact, the estimated risk of dependence on cannabis is about one in ten. It’s worth exploring how this figure of one in ten is constructed. Several studies of cannabis dependence used the criteria laid out in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to determine cannabis dependence. Examining these criteria highlights just how challenging making this diagnosis is.

The optimal minimum legal age for non-medical cannabis use is 19 years of age, according to a study published in BMC Public Health. Researchers investigated how Canadians who started using cannabis at several young ages differed across important outcomes (educational attainment, cigarette smoking, self-reported general and mental health) in later-life. "Our results indicate that, contrary to the Canadian federal government's recommendation of 18 and the medical community's support for 21 or 25, 19 is the optimal minimum legal age for non-medical cannabis use. Keeping the legal age below 21 may strike a balance between potential increases in underground markets and illegal use, and avoiding the adverse outcomes associated with starting to use cannabis at an earlier age."

Justice Minister Sam Tanson on Friday refused to confirm Luxembourg will legalise cannabis for recreational use in an apparent U-turn over a government promise from 2018 that drew widespread international attention. "I can't confirm anything," Tanson said in an interview when asked whether the sale of cannabis would still be made legal, as foreseen in the 2018 coalition agreement. Earlier, she had sidestepped questions about the overall plan to legalise the production, sale, possession and consumption of cannabis. Tanson is set to publish a package of measures for security and drug policy issues in October, which would include the regulation of cannabis use. (See also, in French: Le cannabis bientôt légal, voilà ce que l'on sait déjà)