Free courses teach people in rural communities to cultivate marijuana
Pro-marijuana activists are offering free growing workshops in Yucatan’s rural communities.
“It is all about fighting the stigma that surrounds marijuana and showing people the sorts of products that they could produce.” said a spokesperson from Frente Cannábico del Sureste.
The group says that it will continue with its workshops and will always make sure to be on the right side of the law. Frente Cannábico del Sureste offers their next workshop on March 20 in Tekax.
Activists are concerned that in its current form, the law set to govern marijuana cultivation is too restrictive and is designed to favor big business and large-scale production. So they say it is important that small-scale growers in rural communities arm themselves with as much knowledge as possible to compete in the market.
“We want a legal framework that can bring some of these players in from the illegal market into a legal one,” said Zara Snapp, co-founder of the RIA Institute, a Mexico City-based drug policy research and advocacy group. “The purchase price needs to be low enough to undercut the illegal market for consumers. … You also have to make sure there are enough entry points for [growers] to move over.”
Earlier: Marijuana in Mexico will be legal, but under tight restrictions
Momentum is building as Mexico takes its last steps toward marijuana legalization. With a population of over 127 million, Mexico would become the largest cannabis market in the world.
However, contrary to popular perception, marijuana consumption in Mexico has historically been quite modest among the general population.
It is estimated that Mexico currently has 2.3 consumers of marijuana representing a market value of 3.2 billion pesos, according to New Frontier Data.
In 2018 the Supreme Court ruled that banning cannabis violated Mexicans’ constitutional rights. The court instructed the federal government to create a legal framework to regulate the production and consumption of marijuana no later than April 30, 2021.
Senior Editor Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican expedition/Canadian photographer, adventure leader, and PhD candidate. Born in Mérida, Carlos holds multimedia, philosophy, and translation degrees from universities in Mexico, Canada and Norway.
