In the run-up to last Sunday’s elections, the Senate backed away from its commitment on cannabis reform, apparently preferring to shift any political blowback to the Supreme Court.
Two months ago we postedto celebrate the passage by Mexico’s Lower Chamber of the Cannabis Law bill sent to it by the Mexican Senate last November. In that post, I wrote, “The Law will now return to the Mexican Senate, where it is expected to be approved pretty much as written, at which point, it will go to the Executive Power for publication.”
Oops.
Just over a month ago the Senate ended its session not only without having approved the Law, but also having ignored the Supreme Court’s directive (dating from 2018) to do so. As a reminder, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that the federal government’s prohibition on recreational marijuana use was unconstitutional and ordered Congress to pass a reform legalizing recreational use within 90 days. Since then, the Court has set multiple deadlines for Congressional action, with April 30, 2021 set to be the final one.
Congress’ only obligation under the Supreme Court mandate was to regulate cannabis cultivation and consumption for personal use, but for a long time, members of Congress publicly stated that they would try to create a framework to provide for the creation of a cannabis industry.
Unfortunately, politics intervened. In Mexico, as in many countries, cannabis is a polarizing issue. Social conservatives use the issue to scare voters (¡drogas!) about the intentions of the opposition and to reassure them about their own credentials.
In the run-up to last Sunday’s elections, the Senate backed away from commitment on the issue, apparently preferring to shift any political blowback to the Supreme Court, which way back in 2018 said it would strike down the government’s prohibition on recreational marijuana use if Congress did not enact reforms. A complication is that the composition of the Supreme Court has changed slightly since its 2018 ruling, and the issuance of a General Declaration of Unconstitutionality would require the support of eight of 11 justices.
So, where do things stand today for cannabis businesses (or start-ups) interested in the Mexico market?
The final outcome of the elections will be an important factor, of course. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s MORENA party appeared to maintain its plurality in the Lower Chamber of Mexico’s Congress, but lost a significant number of seats and will need to work with its allies in the Workers Party (PT in Spanish) and Green Party (PVEM, in Spanish) to pass legislation.
For cannabis businesses, this is good news; MORENA politicians and legislators were the originators of the Cannabis Law, and are the most likely to press for further action toward enactment, e.g. by taking it up again during the next Senate session, scheduled to begin on September 1, 2021. Victory by the opposition would likely have postponed the creation of a legislative framework to underpin the development of a cannabis industry until the political winds have shifted once again.
Another question is whether or not the Supreme Court will press ahead and issue a General Declaration of Unconstitutionality in relation to the government’s prohibition on…
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