Nearly three years after Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that the nation’s marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional, it voted on Monday to end criminalization on its own because lawmakers failed to pass a legalization bill by a key deadline. The court in 2018 ordered the legislature to enact a policy change. But while both chambers of the Congress advanced reform legislation in varying forms—and required multiple deadline extensions to do so—it was ultimately unable to fulfill that obligation on time by the end of the most recent session. Minister Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, who serves on the high court, filed a general declaration of unconstitutionality earlier this month, setting the stage for Monday’s vote. The 8-3 vote means that marijuana possession and cultivation for personal use will be legal nationally. The Ministry of Health would still have some regulatory authority with respect to permitting personal cultivation, but people will no longer need to submit requests for legal protections through a more complicated judicial process.
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 06/28/2021 14:57:00