A Mexico senator has introduced a bill that would legalise recreational marijuana.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the president-elect of Mexico, and his soon-to-be interior interior minister Olga Sanchez Cordero proposed a bill to legalise marijuana.
If it passes, each person will be allowed to have up to 20 plants at a time for personal consumption. The bill would also include regulating and monitoring production, sales, and consumption.
In five separate court cases, Mexico’s supreme court has ruled in favour of private citizens suing for their rights to consume recreational marijuana. If this law passes, it would no longer require a lawsuit for each citizen to smoke.
Individuals can also partake in public places and produce no more than 480 grams per year if the law passes.
Ms Obrador also suggested negotiating peace and amnesty for some involved in the drug trade who security forces are currently targeting, Reuters reports.
Mexico famously struggles with the violence of drug cartels, and the government has been viciously fighting a “war on drugs” since 2006. Thousands have died in the drug war. Former Mexican president Michael Vincente Fox has argued that legalisation would reduce profits for dangerous Mexican cartels, and in turn, would reduce drug-related violence.
Globally, laws regarding marijuana are slowly relaxing. The only other countries that have formally legalised cannabis are Uruguay and, as of June, Canada. Slowly, US states are legalising medical or recreational marijuana as well.
The recent midterm election involved several marijuana-related propositions, as long as sales are still regulated and documented. North Dakota’s proposition failed, but Missouri and Utah voted to allow medical marijuana. Michigan voted to allow it recreationally as well.
