Mexico grants first recreational marijuana permits to just four people, but none of them smoke pot!

In breaking news out of Mexico City today, Mexican health authorities have issued the first permit allowing four — just four! — individuals to grow and smoke their own marijuana.

Incredibly, however, none of the four individuals involved has any desire to consume marijuana for themselves.

Instead, they hope to use their legal victory to push forward changes to Mexico’s long-standing prohibitionist policies.

“We didn’t do this to get the right (to consume) for ourselves but to change a public policy that has been extremely costly for the country,” said Armando Santacruz, an accountant and one of the four who won the case.

Yahoo News reports that

“The group, part of the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Personal Use (SMART), says decriminalizing pot will help reduce the country’s relentless drug cartel violence.”

The permit stems from a historic Supreme Court Ruling last month, which ruled that the prohibition of the personal use and cultivation of cannabis was a fundamental human right.

Their legal victory has prompted others to seek similar permits while forcing President Enrique Pena Nieto and Congress to debate whether to change the country’s marijuana laws.

“The goal is to modify the policy, not to promote consumption,” Juan Francisco Torres Landa, an attorney, and a member of the foursome told reporters.

“We will set an example, and we will not consume (marijuana) because we have enough information to take a responsible decision. But it will be based on our conviction, not on threats from the state.”

According to RT,

Government health watchdog Cofepris said the permits are limited to those four people only, two lawyers, an accountant and a social activist. But, the sale of the substance and use in front of children and pregnant women remains illegal for permit holders.

The President of Mexico still does not support legalizing cannabis in the country. President Enrique Peña Nieto has opposed the legalization of marijuana, but he has also held talks with experts to discuss potential new regulations, which may signal a change in his stance on the issue.

Again, the court’s ruling doesn’t mean a general legalization. But if the court rules the same way on five similar petitions, it would then establish the precedent to change the law and allow public recreational use, according to Fox News.

So far, dozens of people have since filed similar appeals to get such permits.