Mexico’s marijuana legalization could ease drug war
November 11, 2015
Mexico’s marijuana legalization could ease drug war
By Jorge Castaneda
Mexico may soon enter an elite club composed of Holland, Portugal, Uruguay and Colorado, Oregon and Washington state: It’s on the verge of excluding marijuana from the destructive war on drugs. But will the United States stand in its way?
On Nov. 4, Mexico’s Supreme Court voted by a wide margin to declare unconstitutional the country’s ban on the production, possession and recreational consumption of marijuana. A group of citizens had banded together in a so-called cannabis club (named SMART, for the initials in Spanish of its full title) and requested permission to grow and exchange marijuana among themselves; the government’s health agency (the equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) denied them permission; the group sought a writ of habeas corpus, and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which granted them the writ and ordered the agency to legalize the club and allow it to function.
This decision does not entail an across-the-board decriminalization of recreational marijuana. For the moment, it applies only to the group that sought permission. But the court’s ruling may eventually extend to everyone seeking to grow or consume the drug.
Absent injury to third parties, the court resolved that, under the constitution, every individual has the right to enjoy life as he or she sees fit, and that secondary legislation – like prohibiting marijuana – cannot curtail that right.
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The court also ruled that although marijuana may cause some degree of harm to some adult users in large quantities, prohibition is an excessive antidote to that harm. Other dangerous substances, such as alcohol and tobacco, are legal and subject to regulation, so why not marijuana?
Unlike in the U.S., public opinion in Mexico is against legalizing pot, which is why SMART chose the judicial road instead of pursuing a legislative approach.
Recent history has shown that once the courts resolve controversial social issues – abortion, same-sex marriage, living wills
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What a concept!
