By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
After a visit with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland in October and discussing how cannabis legalization had impacted Ottowa, incoming Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that marijuana prohibition would likely be rolled back in Mexico once president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador had assumed office.
The two see legalization as a way of helping curb violence stemming from the country’s failed drug war.
López Obrador won’t take office until December 1, but evidence of his interest in legalizing cannabis is already manifesting.
The inbound president’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party introduced a bill on Thursday to legalize marijuana use in the country.
“The law responds to the new reality that the country lives,” said MORENA legislator Olga Sanchez while introducing the bill. “240,000 dead and 40,000 disappeared within ten years, in addition to the thousands of children threatened by organized crime.”
The 75-article bill would legalize the possession of up to thirty grams of cannabis and allow for commercial production and sales. The measure would also permit individuals to grow up to twenty plants for personal use, though it would require that they donate amounts over 480 grams for research.
MORENA is likely to pass the law as they currently have control of both chambers of the Mexican legislature, a majority in the Senate, and a majority in the Chamber of Representatives.
According to Foreign Minister-designate Ebrard, there are 9,000 people serving prison time for drug possession in Mexico.
Upon the bill’s passage, prisons would be required to release anyone serving prison time for offenses covered by the law within thirty days.
