Mexican lawmaker Mario Delgado Carrillo has introduced a bill that would legalize recreational cannabis use and permit home cultivation.
His General Law for the Control of Cannabis would set up a state-owned company called Cannsalud to control the supply chain. Cannsalud – a portmanteau of cannabis and health – would have the exclusive rights to purchase cannabis from legal growers and then distribute it to recreational cannabis stores across Mexico.
It would allow Mexicans to grow up to six cannabis plants for personal use and sharing with friends and family at home. The bill seeks to reform the General Health Law and the Federal Criminal Code, published in the Parliamentary Gazette
Carrillo is the coordinator of the ruling MORENA party’s bench in the Chamber of Deputies, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador should support his bill along with the rest of the party.
“This is a first step towards the opening of a new lawful market, and a public company is proposed as a mandatory intermediary in order to identify and contain the risks inherent in the establishment of a new market, when there are already international commercial interests that seek to maximize its utilities above the protection of people’s health,” reads Carillo’s bill.
Cannsalud would also control the Mexican medicinal cannabis industry under the proposed law, while also conducting consultation work and statistical analysis. It would essentially prevent large global marijuana companies from seizing control of trade in Mexico.
Obrador is determined to legalize recreational marijuana after declaring the country’s war on drugs to be a failure. He wants to use peaceful solutions to end the drug war and he feels that legalizing cannabis would be of great social and economic benefit to Mexico.
Sen. Julio Menchaca Salazar and Olga Sanchez Cordero, Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, have previously introduced marijuana legalization bills.
Last year Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that a blanket ban on recreational cannabis use is unconstitutional, which obliged the government to legalize it. The court set a deadline for lawmakers to formally end the prohibition by October 2019, so the deadline is looming.
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