Politics Mexico’s Supreme Court rules personal marijuana possession legal, again Mattha Busby May 12, 2022, Mexico’s Supreme Court keeps declaring prohibition unconstitutional, but the national Congress still refuses to fully legalize. (AdobeStock) Legal limits on the amount of cannabis that can be possessed for personal use in Mexico are unconstitutional, the country’s supreme court ruled in a decision handed down on Wednesday. It’s the latest in a series of judgments striking down marijuana prohibition, dating back to 2015. Wednesday’s decision does not in practice immediately reduce the risk of arrest or harassment by police for cannabis consumers. (See this Leafly article for why that’s the case.) It comes after the court last year ruled that prohibitions on personal consumption and home cultivation were unconstitutional. But that earlier ruling did not affect the 5 gram decriminalized limit for possession that had been in place since 2009, with those in possession of amounts greater risking a potential jail term of up to three years. “The fact that the public ministry is allowed to take criminal action against a person who possesses more than 5 grams of cannabis for personal consumption is actually punishing moral qualities [and] personal behavior; which has no constitutional support,” Supreme Court Judge Juan Luis González Alcántara wrote.
Mattha Busby, Leafly, 05/12/2022 13:58:00