The Mexican Senate approves medicinal marijuana
The bill proposed by President Enrique Peña was approved by the Mexican Senate to decriminalize medicinal marijuana, but rejected raising the amount allowed for possession by consumers from 5 to 28 grams.
The law was approved in an extraordinary session of the joint committees on Health, Human Rights, Governance and Legislative Studies of the Senate.
The planting, cultivation and harvesting of marijuana in Mexico is decriminalized when used for medicinal and scientific purposes, thus the country will have its own marijuana industry under control.
The initiative stipulates that the medicinal use of marijuana refers to the production, importation, and use of medications, not to smoking. It also mandates that the Secretary of Health design and implement public policies regulating the medicinal use of cannabis's pharmacological components (cannabidiol, etc.).
President Peña also proposed not considering the possession of up to 28 grams of marijuana a crime, but this measure was not approved by the Senate.
His proposal included five points for a reform of the public health law and penal code:
- Addressing the issue of drugs from a human rights perspective.
- Addictions should be treated with prevention and therapeutic measures, without discrimination.
- Create actions to prevent drug use, especially aimed at children and young people.
- Authorize the use of marijuana-derived medicines and their importation.
- Promote clinical research related to marijuana.
Along with these proposals and the increase of the amount to 28 grams per possession, Peña argued that an injustice against thousands of people who are now in prison with disproportionate sentences would be stopped.
Fountain: Sputnik World