Mexico: Senate approves bill legalizing recreational use of cannabis

In Mexico, the Senate on Thursday, November 19 approved a bill that legalizes the recreational use of cannabis, a substance illegal for a century in the country.

REUTERS / Costas Baltas

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In Mexico, the Senate on Thursday, November 19 approved a bill that legalizes the recreational use of cannabis, a substance illegal for a century in the country.

Once validated by the Chamber of Deputies, this new law will make Mexico the largest legal cannabis market in the world.

An important bill in a country ravaged for the past fifteen years by violence linked to drug trafficking.

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With our correspondent in Mexico,

It was time for it to be voted on, because in front of the Senate it is now a real field of cannabis that grows, planted as a sit-in by the activists.

It is therefore now expected that the Chamber of Deputies, controlled by the party in power which carries the bill, quickly gives its approval to a text which, in addition to legalizing the use of cannabis, is also working. to provide a framework for its production, sale and distribution.

A legalization which has at least symbolic importance in Mexico, a country struck by the violence generated by drug trafficking and its fight by the authorities.

Removing the cannabis market from the clutches of organized crime will reduce this violence, lawmakers hope, even though the legalization of cannabis in California, which has reduced U.S. demand, and the emergence of synthetic drugs has lowered interest in crime. organized door to cannabis.

Among the proponents of legalization, many also believe that the many requirements in the bill to be able to produce and sell cannabis in fact give the keys to the market for large multinationals, leaving current small producers by the wayside and therefore always at the mercy of organized crime.

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• Mexico

• Drug