Senators In Mexico Are Pushing Forward With National Marijuana Legalization
A leading Mexican politician has spoken on how the country’s legislators have built the platform to enact a new piece of cannabis legislation. This development has come before the start of the new session after this type of cannabis reform has tried to been passed once before, To which full cannabis legislation has come up short over the years.
Its been about 3 years since the Mexican Supreme Court first announced the personal possession of cannabis was unconstitutional. In addition to growing marijuana in the privacy of your home. Mexican legislators were then put in a position to pass some type of reform. However, they were not able to agree on the policy change. This would be done to place regulation for a cannabis program by the end of the prior session ends.
Lawmakers in Mexico have asked the court to extend its timeframe for Congress to end cannabis prohibition. To which the court agreed to do so on multiple occasions. Yet due to the number of times, this policy change has failed to reach those deadlines. Justices eventually voted to eliminate the criminalization on their own in June. Nonetheless, there is currently a need for regulations for legal sales. However, and Senate Majority Leader Ricardo Monreal Avila party said the plan is to bridge that gap via legislation this session that started on September 1st.
“With the beginning of the LXV Legislature, a new possibility was opened to discuss and approve this long-delayed law, which would put an end to 100 years of prohibitionist policy and criminalization of the consumption of the cannabis flower, opening, in turn, a multimillion-dollar market nationally and internationally, which could be beneficial for the economic reactivation of our country,” he said in a press release on Monday, according to a translation.
The Next Step For Cannabis Legalization In Mexico
Following the Supreme Court separately nullifying prohibition earlier this year, advocates stressed the result. Advocates went on to say that the decision highlights the need for legislators to expeditiously pass a cannabis measure. This would be done to implement a comprehensive way to regulate legal sales. They want to ensure that a market is established. A cannabis market that is fair, and addresses the damage of criminalization on certain communities, and promotes personal freedom. Legislators have gotten closer to reaching that objective since 2018 but came up short on the path to reach that point. 
The Senate passed a legalization bill in late 2020. After the Chamber of Deputies made changes and approved the bill back in March, sending it back to the beginning chamber. A few of the Senate committees then took up and approved the revised measure. Yet administrators soon started indicating that certain amendments made the proposal unworkable. Monreal said further changes may be required to get a final bill ready for passing.
“If this law is approved in this ordinary period of session, some modifications should also be made to the tax collection legal framework, to provide for a special tax on cannabis and its derivatives, as is the case of other products with an impact on public health: spirits, beer, gasoline and tobacco,” he said. Saying he estimates that it could result in the equivalent of nearly a billion U.S. dollars in revenue.
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Pushing Forward With Cannabis Legalization In Mexico
“At this point in the legislative process, dialogue in both chambers should be privileged to achieve a project that can be voted positively, guaranteeing rights and freedoms of all the people involved through institutions empowered to do so, eradicating discriminatory treatment and solving possible ambiguities,” Monreal said. “In other words, the debate is still alive, and in the parliamentary majority of the Senate of the Republic we will continue working to offer citizens a law that meets their needs.”
After the Chamber of Deputies previously approved the Senate-passed legalization bill, senators shared some thoughts. They said that the amended proposition was critically internally conflicted. For instance, stipulations regarding legal possession quantities. As well as how to properly define hemp in addition to other issues. Also, lawmakers themselves could be faced with criminal liability if it went into effect as how the bill is written.
Mexican Politicians Are Fighting To Enact Cannabis Reform
Although Monreal mentioned some important info back in April. Monreal said that if the court were to make a claim of unconstitutionality before a measure to regulate cannabis was approved, it would result in “chaos.” The leading senator also addressed the significance of administrators taking their time to craft good policy. Furthermore to not be so quick amidst lobbying from tobacco and pharmaceutical industry interests.
“We must not allow ourselves to be pressured by interests,” he said at the time. “The Senate must act with great prudence in this matter.”
Sen. Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar of the MORENA party said in April that “at this time, it is important to legislate in the terms that are presented to us” and then consider additional revisions to cannabis laws through subsequent bills. That’s the stance that many who support the cannabis legislation took as well. To where advocates pressed lawmakers to enact an incomplete bill immediately and then work out the issues later on.
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Final Thoughts On Mexico Legalizing Marijuana
As legislators fight to pass the reform legislation, there’s been a more joyous drive to concentrate the focus on the issue. Which is being accomplished by various members and activists. That push has essentially included farming and offering marijuana as a gift. Back in late 2020, a top administration official was offered a cannabis plant as a gift by a senator on the Senate floor. This top official said she will take this cannabis plant and make it a part of her personal garden.
Not to mention in 2019 Another lawmaker gave the same official, Interior Ministry Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero, a marijuana joint. Which took place on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies at that time. Cannabis made another appearance in the legislature in 2020. This happened when Sen. Jesusa Rodríguez of the MORENA party decorated her desk with a cannabis plant. Drug policy reform advocates have also been growing a large number of marijuana plants right in the middle of the Senate. This putting weight on legislators to come through on their commitment to passing some type of comprehensive cannabis legalization.
