When a lot of people think of the War on Drugs, they think of Mexico because of the strong presence of drug cartels there. Anyone who has ever traveled along the Mexico/USA border knows that the influence from drug cartels is great. Things are often times downright horrific on the other side of the border in border-towns. Unspeakable things happen to innocent people in Mexico all of the time because of the cartels that largely exist because of prohibition in both Mexico and America.
There have been a lot of recent events in Mexico that have resulted in movement on the reform front, most notably a recent Mexico Supreme Court decision that ruled it’s a basic right to possess and cultivate marijuana, at least for the people involved in the case. Today members of Mexico’s Congress spoke out in support of reform. Per Fox Latino:
Members of Congress called Monday for changing Mexico’s punitive marijuana laws at hearings on the use of the plant, whose cultivation and use were approved by the Supreme Court for four citizens last year.
“We have the challenge of proposing an alternative to the problem of the illegal market for marijuana and its negative consequences. Or remain as we are, running the risk of compromising the health, security and dignity of people,” the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Jesus Zambrano, said at the start of the session.
Congress must take immediate action to define the national position on cannabis legalization in the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling to allow four citizens to use marijuana for recreational purposes, the lawmaker said.
This is huge news. If Mexico’s Congress were to move on reform at the same time that debates are going on across Mexico, and closely following the historic Court ruling, that could be enough momentum to get something actually done. Combine that with legalization votes in the United States and the winds of reform picking up in Canada. Come on North America, you can do it!
