Mexico’s Supreme Court: Cannabis Prohibition Unconstitutional

(The AEGIS Alliance) – The Supreme Court of Mexico handed down two additional rulings on Wednesday and ordered that complainants involved in individual cases are allowed to consume cannabis for recreational purposes. These rulings established that marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional.

The court has found that adults have fundamental rights to personal developments which allows them to make decisions on their recreational activities without being interfered by the state.

“That right is not absolute, and the consumption of certain substances may be regulated, but the effects provoked by marijuana do not justify an absolute prohibition of its consumption,” states the ruling.

The Federal Commission was ordered by the high court for sanitary risk protections  and authorizes the complainants to use cannabis, but to not commercialize it or use other drugs.

These two decisions are following three similar ones between the years of 2015 and 2017. Under the laws of Mexico, five such decisions on related issues set a standard that will apply more broadly.

“With the existence of five precedents in the same vein on the subject, the judgment will be mandatory for all courts in the country,” the high tribunal stated in conclusion.

However, the rulings do not legalize recreational use technically. Although, they do establish that courts must allow it, but it’s still up to individuals to press their case in the judicial system.

Similar things have happened in Mexico in recent years, with five Supreme Court rulings that established a broader precedent which allows same-sex couple to be married, but same-sex marriage is not yet the law of the land nationwide.

An opposition group that opposed drug prohibition policies called Mexico United Against Crime, say the rulings on Wednesday “opens the doors to regulation of cannabis” and have confirmed that “Mexico must move toward the regulation of drugs to improve conditions of justice and peace in the country.” The group urges lawmakers to act, because formal legalization is up to Congress.

“The Supreme Court has done its job. … The responsibility for issuing the corresponding regulation falls on congress,” Lisa Sanchez, the group’s director general, mentioned in her statement.

Mexico has a long history of being the source of cannabis being smuggled into the United States. These rulings by Mexico’s Supreme Court follow after many US states have legalized marijuana in recent years for recreational or medical purposes, or both. These rulings also come after Canada legalized cannabis nationwide, but will the US follow this trend is the big question.

Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.