Mexican court gives green light to individual recreational marijuana permits. What changes with the ruling?

MEXICO CITY.- The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) approved this Monday a measure to make it easier to obtain licenses and permits with which to legally consume cannabis and THC recreationally.

With 8 votes in favor and 3 against

, the court established that five articles of the country's General Health Law that absolutely prohibit the use of cannabis are unconstitutional.

"The legal obstacle for the Ministry of Health, through the competent body, to authorize thereafter activities related to the self-consumption of cannabis and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) for recreational purposes", establishes the text of the court.

[Activists congregate to smoke marijuana in front of the Mexican Senate]

It determined that in this way it would be possible to "respect the fundamental right to free development of the personality", and that the total prohibition violated that constitutional guarantee.

What does this decision mean?

The recreational and personal use of marijuana has been allowed since 2018 only for those adults in Mexico who file an amparo, a legal resource with which they can try to force the regulatory health agency, COFEPRIS, to grant them permission.

The decision of this Monday establishes that

the protection will no longer be necessary

: those who want to have the license for self-consumption may go directly to COFEPRIS and request the permit without doing a prior legal procedure.

The Senate of Mexico approves a proposal to legalize the recreational use of marijuana

Nov. 21, 202000: 48

With the permit, "the acquisition [of seeds] for the sowing, cultivation, harvest, preparation, possession and transport" of cannabis and THC would be possible.

But distribution or marketing is still strictly prohibited.

Despite the ruling of the highest court,

it will still be necessary to obtain a license

for consumption to be legal.

In other words, if someone without a COFEPRIS license is found in possession of marijuana, they

can still be arrested or fined.

In this April 20, 2021 file photo, Ana Méndez Casteñeda smokes marijuana during the 'Fumaton 4/20' in front of the National Senate in Mexico City.

(AP Photo / Marco Ugarte, File) AP

To obtain the license, you must meet several requirements that are not affordable for anyone over 18 years of age, such as having authorization from customs to be able to import cannabis seeds for growing plants.

This means that

marijuana for recreational purposes is not yet legal in a generalized way

for anyone in Mexico, it is only for those who process and obtain the COFEPRIS license.

[Why tunnels under the US-Mexico border can be worth millions of dollars to traffickers]

For it to be general, it will be necessary for Congress to finally discuss the decriminalization that has been close to being a reality for months.

So what really changes with the failure?

The court's decision makes up for the legal uncertainty that exists due to the

inaction of Congress

.

The Supreme Court ordered Congress in 2019 to modify the legal framework on cannabis, after determining that the prohibition of personal use was unconstitutional.

And it set April 30, 2021 as the deadline to legislate it.

Since November last year, the Mexican Senate backed a law decriminalizing marijuanav.

The Chamber of Deputies later voted on it, and in March endorsed legislation with which it would be possible to

consume up to 28 grams and acquire cannabis or derivatives from authorized establishments.

A woman smokes a marijuana cigarette this Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in the Zócalo of Mexico City. EFE / EFE

However, the lower house made so many alterations to the bill that the Senate had already voted on that it had to be returned for review to that upper house.

There it is stuck

, with no scheduled voting date.

The Supreme Court had said that May was the deadline for that review, but the legislative leadership indicated that, if anything, it will be reviewed in the next session that begins

until September.

[Activists demand legalization of marijuana in Mexico]

And by then, even if both houses vote the law as is, the effect will not be immediate.

It will still be necessary for the Ministry of Health to make adjustments and say how the situation will work and regulate.

Something similar happened with

marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Since 2017, the court ordered to establish rules to regularize marijuana for therapeutic use and since then it has ruled in favor of Mexicans who asked to be able to consume for those purposes.

With which this ended up being allowed ... on paper.

But there were no regulations from the Ministry of Health.

That meant that people in Mexico in general could not really access the cannabis or THC treatments they needed or use them therapeutically, unless they still filed an appeal.

That was what people like Carlos Garfias had to do, a teenager who has a type of epilepsy whose effects can be alleviated by a cannabis supplement.

[New York legalizes recreational marijuana use and expunges criminal records for that reason]

It was until the end of 2020 that the regulation was drafted, and until January of this year that it was approved.

And what's next?

The court's decision puts pressure again on Congress, where the issue could be taken up again next September when the new legislature begins.

It will be up to the legislators to establish the regulatory framework that will regulate licenses for small and large-scale production;

marketing;

retail and scientific research.

They approve the recreational use of marijuana in adults in New York

March 31, 202100: 32

In addition,

COFEPRIS needs to rule on adjustments in the requirements to obtain the license to grow the seed

of the cannabis plant.

This Monday's ruling precisely indicates that the agency "must establish the guidelines and modalities for the acquisition of the seed [...] without the authorization including in any case the permission to import, trade or distribute the substances" already derived.

[Marijuana is legalized in four US states]

Efforts to legalize marijuana have been driven in part by groups that say it reduces the incentives for cartels to profit from the drug.

However, given the decriminalization of this substance in several US states,

criminal organizations based in Mexico have chosen to diversify

: currently they tend to traffic more drugs such as fentanyl and heroin than marijuana.

While Mexico advances in the decriminalization of marijuana for recreational use, Canada has already legalized medicinal and recreational use and the United States is discussing two laws in its Congress, which could make the North American region the largest market for legal cannabis .