MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Armando Santacruz, a 54-year-old businessman, had been trying to convince congressmen for nearly a year to get Mexico to legalize and regulate drugs, starting with marijuana. It was an uphill battle in a country where drug crime has tore at the fabric of society. In private, congressmen were open to the conversation, Santacruz said, but publicly, they appeared vehemently opposed to discussing the issue.

Santacruz and his colleagues — a businessman, a lawyer, and a 67-year-old grandmother, all members of an NGO called Mexicans United Against Crime — realized they needed a more creative strategy. So they formed the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Consumption (SMART, in Spanish) and asked a branch of the Health Ministry for permission to grow, carry and smoke their own marijuana.

Now they're headed to the Supreme Court.

It’s not that the four-person group wants to smoke the weed they’re fighting for: some of them haven’t even tried marijuana and those who have say don’t smoke it regularly. For them, it’s all about lowering crime in a country where the war on illegal drugs has led to more than 70,000 deaths since former president Felipe Calderon launched the police and military campaign in 2006.

The group has built their case on the notion that barring them from growing cannabis is a violation of their constitutional right to a dignified life since it prevents them from freely developing their personality.

It’s an argument that has seen mixed reception in various courtrooms as the case worked its way through the system. The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on it on Wednesday; if it rules in the group’s favor, it will crack the door open for recreational use of marijuana.

“We generated this type of controversy because the state has proven to be slow and negligent,” said Lisa Sánchez, a drug policy expert at Mexicans United Against Crime.

But even if that’s how the Court votes, it won’t mean that weed will immediately be legally available — it will take the approval of Congress and the president to change the law. “If the legislative and executive powers don’t adjust their laws to this ruling, we’d have a schizophrenic country,” said Santacruz.

The case has polarized Mexico, where carrying up to five grams of marijuana “for strict and immediate personal consumption” was decriminalized in 2009. So were opium (up to 2 grams) and LSD (up to 0.015 mg). But the cultivation and commercialization of drugs remains illegal in the country. The Health Ministry reserves the right to allow agencies or institutions to acquire drugs for scientific or medical purposes.

In September, a judge granted Graciela Elizalde, an 8-year-old girl with a severe form of epilepsy, permission to import marijuana oil, which helps reduce her seizures. Her case is unrelated to the one Santacruz is fighting, because it is not for recreational use, but has still added traction to the legalization debate, which has dominated public attention here for weeks.