In June 2021, the full court eliminated the sections of the General Health Law that absolutely prohibited cannabis use, but this general statement only obliges the Ministry of Health to grant permits to interested parties and had no impact on the field of criminal law or the protection of those who do not have such licenses. The recreational use of marijuana has long been one of the rights demanded by collectives across the country. At the time, the President of the Supreme Court, Arturo Zaldãvar, described the consolidation of free personal development in the recreational use of cannabis as a historic day for freedoms. After a four-year delay, the regulation of medical cannabis in Mexico was published on January 12, 2021. Subsequently, and albeit with a significant delay, after its approval in Congress in 2017, regulations for the sale and distribution of medical marijuana in the country were published in 2021. Following the failure of the Mexican Congress to regulate recreational cannabis, the Supreme Court approved on Monday, June 28, 2021, a landmark decision that lifts the ban on recreational marijuana use in Mexico, although it does not approve its commercialization. Since the beginning of 2021, and after several years of delays following its legalization in Congress, the use, sale and distribution of medical marijuana have been regulated in Mexico, to which is now added this important advance for recreational use. Four years later, in 2021, the regulation of the General Health Law on health control for the production, research and medical use of cannabis and its pharmacological derivatives was published. And on December 2, 2021, the Supreme Court issued an injunction declaring unconstitutional the ban on sowing, cultivating and harvesting ±amo “for purposes other than medical©and scientific.” After three delays, the Supreme Court set April 30, 2021 as the deadline for Congress to regulate the law. Even though the legalization of marijuana in Mexico did not take place in 2021, the immediate approval of the law will lead to the formalization of medical use, the development of the hemp sector and its thousands of uses, as well as new social and economic opportunities to help Mexico achieve its Sustainable Development Goals. This is despite the fact that in a landmark ruling on June 28, 2021, the Supreme Court struck down sections of the General Health Act that prohibited recreational marijuana use.
On June 28, 2021, the Supreme Court lifted the absolute prohibition on cannabis. Thus, it paved the way for citizens to exercise their right to free personal development when processing permits for the personal consumption of adult cannabis (you can consult our guide to amending your license here). Since then, COFEPRIS has been obliged to authorise the consumption of cannabis by adults. However, it has ignored its responsibilities and continues to ignore the Supreme Court`s mandate, forcing individuals and organizations to demand answers from the courts. In 2020, the Senate sent an approved initiative to the Chamber of Deputies for approval. However, on March 10, 2021, the Chamber of Deputies amended the draft decree promulgating the Federal Cannabis Regulation Act and sent it back to the Senate. This document was very different from the original and contained many inconsistencies, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Therefore, it would eventually be discarded. On the last day of the 2021 meeting, 15.
In December, an initiative was presented by all the parliamentary groups of the Senate to make way for the legalization of marijuana in Mexico, based on the project approved by the same Senate in 2020 with some peculiarities: This year 2021 is coming to an end, so we decided to prepare a small summary on the regulation of marijuana in Mexico this year. What happened to the legalization of marijuana in Mexico in 2021? Sometimes it`s hard to keep up with so many changes because cannabis regulation is such a complex issue. The decision creates the federal law regulating cannabis and amends the General Health Act and the Penal Code to legalize the cultivation, production, consumption, distribution, industrialization and sale of marijuana under federal control. Torres Landa saw it the same way: “They are going around in circles because it is clear that this is not a priority for the president. Even though they say they are a left-wing government, they are hyperconservative and in terms of drug policy, frankly, they don`t understand anything about that,” he said.