Here’s the introduction to their piece
Cannabis advocates in Mexico want to see legalization for recreational use. But not all of them are ready to address the violence and injustice resulting from over a century of prohibition.
MEXICO CITY (CN) — Pyramids of THC-infused popcorn, lollipops, candied apples, little clay jars of spicy tamarind paste, and other psychoactive snacks greeted attendees of Expoweed 2021 in Mexico City over the weekend. Many booths boasted at least one attractive female attendant, many with tops haltered to reveal tattooed skin. With so much sex, drugs and EDM on parade, one almost forgets the plant being celebrated has also been prohibited for a century — a prohibition that has caused countless deaths, disappearances and prison sentences that global prevailing winds now largely deem unjust.
Expoweed aims to “break stigmas” of medicinal, recreational, and industrial marijuana use and “create new paradigms as a society,” according to Zvezda Lauric, chief communications officer of Juicy Fields, the German company sponsoring the event.
But marijuana remains in legal limbo in Mexico. This past January, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador finally signed off (in Spanish) on a medicinal marijuana bill that was approved by Congress in July 2017. Then in June of this year, the Supreme Court reiterated its ruling (in Spanish) that the prohibition of recreational use is unconstitutional.
The court first did so in October 2018, but the path to legalization has proven to be circuitous and difficult to navigate. Congress failed to meet three of the judiciary’s deadlines to pass regulatory legislation, forcing it to reissue a 3-year-old ruling.
Despite this lumbering approach, Lauric said “Mexico is making giant steps toward legalization.”
Read full article at https://www.courthousenews.com/cannabis-companies-say-legal-weed-will-save-mexico-but-how/
