By Benji Garcia-Reyes
IG: @themedimexican
The use and cultivation of medicinal marijuana throughout Mexico are now legal, but only for scientific or medical purposes as announced by Peña Nieto in an official decree. The official order eliminates the criminalization of the medicinal use of cannabis, THC, CBD, and all cannabis products, uses, and applications. It also legalizes the production and distribution of cannabis products for medicinal and therapeutic uses, as stated by La Cámara de Diputados (Mexico’s Lower House of Parliament).
The announcement came on June 20th, 2017 and stated that the Mexican government had legalized medicinal cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana or marihuana in Spanish) along with strong support from Mexico’s congress and senate.
The decree came to a surprise to some since Peña Nieto had previously opposed medical cannabis use. That is, until April 2016, when he told the United Nations General Assembly that “So far, the solutions [to control drugs and crime] implemented by the international community have been frankly insufficient [and we] must move beyond prohibition to effective prevention.” Peña Nieto believed it so much introduced a measure that would allow Mexican citizens to possess up to an ounce of cannabis without repercussions, but Congress did not approve that measure.
The published decree states that the manufacturing of cannabis, specifically tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and its various uses and applications will be evaluated closely by the Mexican General Health Council. 180 days after June 20th, 2017, they will begin studying and researching prior to implementing regulations and “public policies regulating the medicinal use of pharmacological derivatives of Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and Americana or marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol, as well as how to regulate the research and national production of them.”
