Mexico: president-elect Amlo's party moves toward marijuana legalization

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Party has submitted legislation to legalize the possession, public use, growth and sale of marijuana

Guardian staff and agencies in Mexico City
Thu 8 Nov 2018 15.29 EST

The party of Mexico’s president-elect has submitted legislation to legalize the possession, public use, growth and sale of marijuana in what would be a major change to the country’s narcotics strategy.

Senator Olga Sánchez Cordero – who has been picked as interior secretary by president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador – said prohibition has fed violence and poverty, criticizing a 12-year crackdown on drug gangs that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

“Today, the nation has taken the decision to change,” she told senators. “We don’t want more deaths. It will be a major contribution to bringing peace to our beloved country.”

If the bill passes, Mexico would join Canada, Uruguay and a number of US states that permit recreational use of the drug and allow its commercialization.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/08/mexico-amlo-marijuana-cannabis-legalization-rollback

[mysteryowl]

1. So... Canada and then Mexico. Time for the US!

[GReedDiamond]

2. I wonder what this would mean for the Mexican drug cartels...

...would they transition into legal cannabis operations, or just move totally into and focus on pushing opioids, meth, spice/fake pot (the worst shit EVER!) in Mexico and across the border?

[a la izquierda]

3. Meth, heroin, and human trafficking...

Which they’ve moved into already.

[LiberalLovinLug]

4. I think this will be huge in a holistic way

Sure the gangs will still have other harder drugs, and other criminal activities, but its also would have a kind of psychological effect. It would be a partial victory against them both in taking away the income and the violence surrounding that particular plant. It would mean a separation from those that only want to smoke pot and nothing else. ie. the pot crowd wouldn't have to deal with the same people that cut peoples heads off.

It would also garner more support to go after the harder drug cartels. Legal pot users that are against harder drugs would feel freer to jump on board that bandwagon, where there was no place for them before.

Not to mention tourism would go up. I'd love to head down and be able to (legally) puff on a joint, with a Corona, on beach. Always was afraid of some corrupt cop and judge sending me to one of their notorious prisons down there, whenever I did partake there.

If you put all the unseen and positive tangents along with the obvious, it can only be a good thing.