Party has submitted legislation to legalize the possession, public use, growth and sale of marijuana

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The party of Mexico’s president-elect has submitted legislation to legalize the possession, public use, growth and sale of marijuana in what would be a major change to the country’s narcotics strategy.

Senator Olga Sánchez Cordero – who has been picked as interior secretary by president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador – said prohibition has fed violence and poverty, criticizing a 12-year crackdown on drug gangs that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

“Today, the nation has taken the decision to change,” she told senators. “We don’t want more deaths. It will be a major contribution to bringing peace to our beloved country.”

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If the bill passes, Mexico would join Canada, Uruguay and a number of US states that permit recreational use of the drug and allow its commercialization.

Mexico, which banned marijuana in the early 20th century, is still a major supplier of illicit weed to the United States. It has been racked by a decade of conflict between cartels over supply routes for heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs to its northern neighbor.

Sánchez’s bill also would allow every Mexican to grow up to 20 marijuana plants on private property and produce up to 17 ounces (480 grams) a year. Edible marijuana products would be prohibited.

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In 2016, Mexico’s government began granting permits for some patients to import medicinal marijuana products. It has also decriminalized small amounts of marijuana and issued several permits for people to cultivate and possess pot for personal use.

López Obrador, who takes office 1 December, has promised major changes to Mexico’s approach to the war on drugs, suggesting a negotiated peace and amnesty for people involved in the narcotics trade.

In the 26-page bill posted on the Congress website, Sánchez wrote that Mexico’s cannabis prohibition has contributed to crime and violence, adding that in the 12 years since Mexico launched a war on cartels, 235,000 people have been killed.

Quick guide Mexico's war on drugs Show Hide Why did Mexico launch its war on drugs? On 10 December 2006, Felipe Calderón launched Mexico’s war on drugs by sending 6,500 troops into his home state of Michoacán, where rival cartels were engaged in tit-for-tat massacres. Calderón declared war eight days after taking power – a move widely seen as an attempt to boost his own legitimacy after a bitterly contested election victory. Within two months, around 20,000 troops were involved in operations. What has the war cost so far? The US has donated at least $1.5bn through the Merida Initiative since 2008, while Mexico spent at least $54bn on security and defence between 2007 and 2016. Critics say that this influx of cash has helped create an opaque security industry open to corruption.



But the biggest costs have been human: since 2007, over 250,000 people have been murdered, more than 40,000 reported as disappeared and 26,000 unidentified bodies in morgues across the country. Human rights groups have also detailed a vast rise in human rights abuses including torture, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances by state security forces.



Peña Nieto claimed to have killed or detained 110 of 122 of his government's most wanted narcos. But his biggest victory – and most embarrassing blunder – was the recapture, escape, another recapture and extradition of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

Mexico’s decade-long war on drugs would never have been possible without the injection of American cash and military cooperation under the Merida Initiative. The funds have continued to flow despite indisputable evidence of human rights violations.



Under new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, murder rates are up and a new security force, the Civil Guard, is being deployed onto the streets despite campaign promises to end the drug war. What has been achieved? Improved collaboration between the US and Mexico has resulted in numerous high-profile arrests and drug busts. Officials say 25 of the 37 drug traffickers on Calderón’s most-wanted list have been jailed, extradited to the US or killed, although not all of these actions have been independently corroborated. The biggest victory – and most embarrassing blunder – under Peña Nieto’s leadership was the recapture, escape and another recapture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel. While the crackdown and capture of kingpins has won praise from the media and US, it has done little to reduce the violence. Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP

“The policy of prohibition arises from the false assumption that the problem of drugs should be tackled from a penal focus,” wrote Sánchez, a former supreme court magistrate.

“The objective can’t be to eradicate the consumption of a substance that’s as prevalent as cannabis,” she added.

Although the coalition led by the president-elect’s National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party has a majority in both houses, it includes a conservative party that has in the past opposed some socially progressive policies, meaning the bill may face hurdles.

Legislation in Mexico’s two-house Congress often moves slowly, and after being submitted, the bill would have to pass committees before reaching a vote.

The bill would permit companies to grow and commercialize marijuana. Individuals would also be allowed to cultivate plants for private use, as long as they register in an anonymous government listing and produce no more than 480 grams of marijuana a year.

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Smoking pot in public places would also be permitted.

Mexico’s supreme court last week ruled that an absolute ban on recreational use of marijuana was unconstitutional, effectively leaving it to lawmakers to regulate consumption of the drug.

Support for legalization has strengthened in Mexico in recent years as violence soars.

Since 2006, Mexico has used military might to fight drug gangs, which have splintered into smaller groups battling over trafficking routes and territory.

The country saw more than 31,000 murders last year, the highest total since modern records began, according to government data.