After a landmark case before Mexico’s Supreme Court, four Mexican residents have now been granted permits to cultivate, possess and consume cannabis. More people have already applied for permits and more court cases may be on the horizon. Cannabis law reform advocates hope that the initial court case victory, the awarding of permits and any future actions that may be on the horizon, will eventually lead to Mexico ending marijuana prohibition once and for all.
The Drug War has devastated too many lives already in Mexico and ending prohibition deprives violent criminal gangs a revenue stream, just as repealing alcohol prohibition deprived American gangsters like Al Capone from capturing prohibition-inflated income from the illicit sale of booze. “Mexico and other Central American States are aware that prohibition has been a disaster for them,” Baroness Meacher, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform, told the Telegraph.
More from the Telegraph:
The landmark decision could have widespread implications for the country, where billions of pounds worth of cannabis are cultivated and trafficked annually, and drug cartels are both powerful and brutally violent.
Like the permits issued yesterday, the court’s decision was limited to just the four members, but a series of similar rulings could set a precedent for widespread legalisation.
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They now have the right to “sow, grow, harvest, prepare, possess, transport and consume marijuana for recreational uses”, but say their goal is not to use marijuana, but to change government policy.
This progress in Mexico, combined with Canada’s ruling Liberal Party moving forward with marijuana legalization; cannabis legal in four states and and the United States’ capital city; more states like California, Massachusetts and Nevada moving forward with legalization ballot measures in 2016; cannabis legal in Uruguay; and other Central American countries moving forward with progressive drug reform policies, Drug War reform advocates have many reasons to be hopeful for positive change in the coming years. The failed and harmful War on Drugs has gone on for far too long, but it is clear that prohibition’s days are numbered.
