Mexicos Supreme Court has given the green light to growing marijuana
for recreational use, in a landmark decision that could lead to
legalisation in a country with a bloody history of conflict with drug
cartels.
Ruling on a case first brought in 2013 by an advocacy
group that had been denied permission by regulators to grow plants for
recreational use, the court set a precedent by voting 4-1 that
prohibiting people from growing the drug to consume it themselves was
unconstitutional.
The courts vote does not legalise marijuana
consumption in Mexico, but more rulings of the same kind could set a
legal precedent.
It is a drug and thus causes damage, Judge Arturo
Zaldivar said. What holds in the proposal is that the extreme measure
of prohibiting it is disproportional in relation to the damage, which
has been scientifically proven – under these terms, I will uphold the
proposal as it was presented.
Another judge, Alfredo Gutierrez
Ortiz Mena, said: It is unquestionable that the consumption of any drug
generates a health problem. However, from a constitutional
interpretation there does not exist any reason in which the answer of
the state to the consumption of marijuana is the seclusion and absolute
prohibition of its consumption.
Outside the court, proponents of change in Mexicos drug laws celebrated the decision by lighting up joints.
The
production and sale of marijuana is illegal in Mexico. Still, in 2009,
the country made it legal to carry up to 0.18oz of marijuana, 0.018oz of
cocaine and tiny amounts of heroin and methamphetamine.
Marijuana,
along with cocaine and crystal meth, has been a major source of income
for cartels blamed for more than 100,000 drug-related killings in Mexico
since 2007.
Political pressure on Mexico to liberalise its stance
on marijuana has been rising since the US states of Washington and
Colorado legalised the possession and sale of the drug for recreational
use in 2012.
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