By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
On Wednesday, November 1, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled for the fourth and fifth time that the country’s ban on cannabis is unconstitutional and is a violation of the citizens’ rights. Under Mexican law, if the court reaches the same decision in five separate cases, the ruling is to be applied nationwide.
“That right is not absolute, and the consumption of certain substances may be regulated,” states the ruling. “But the effects provoked by marijuana do not justify an absolute prohibition of its consumption.”
The push for legal cannabis began gaining momentum in Mexico when a judge ruled on August 17, 2015, that the family eight-year-old Graciela Elizalda Benavides, who has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, could import and administer CBD oil to her.
A ruling in November of 2015 granted the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Personal Use permission to cultivate marijuana for themselves, followed by a similar one in 2017.
The new rulings do not technically legalize recreational cannabis, but they do force courts to adopt the same standards across the country allowing for its use, though it is up to each person to defend their case.
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that cannabis prohibition is unconstitutional, they have ninety days to inform Congress of that fact. If Congress does not proceed to reform the laws, every adult that is prosecuted for marijuana use in Mexico will be able to file for protection from the judicial system.
President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will assume office on December 1, 2018, has been looking at legalization as a means to help curb violence and deaths in the country stemming from the war with drug cartels.
