Mexico’s Supreme Court has invalidated a long-standing law that limited recreational marijuana possession to five grams.
As a result, the possession of any amount of marijuana in Mexico is no longer technically illegal as long as it is for recreational purposes.
This ruling is seen by marijuana industry observers as yet another step toward Mexico’s long road to complete legalization of the drug.
But despite several court rulings defending the constitutionality of recreational pot, legislation to support it, or even something like high thc weed seeds, has been extremely slow.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that banning cannabis violated Mexicans’ constitutional rights. The court instructed legislators to create a legal framework to regulate the production and consumption of marijuana no later than April 30, 2021.
But as this due date came and went, marijuana appears to slowly become legal by de facto rather than legal decree.
Nevertheless, pro-marijuana activists argue that full legalization is necessary to avoid abuses of power on the part of authorities.
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Contributing to the legal ambiguity of marijuana in Mexico is the fact that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has come out against full legalization, calling it “immoral.”
But despite its legal status, the use of marijuana and marijuana products in Mexico has become relatively ubiquitous.
Mérida even briefly had a marijuana-friendly cafe, though the establishment was quickly closed by local authorities under the pretext that it lacked the necessary licensing.
There have also been several instances of activists seeding marijuana plants around town and in parks as an act of civil disobedience.
“The congress and senate are 100% to blame. They had a clear mandate from the Supreme Court, but they chose to simply run out the clock,” said Cuauhtli Laguna Peraza of the pro-marijuana collective Dzac Yah.
