Mexico Legalizing?

Mexico is about to legalize marijuana, which will put pressure on Biden to do the same | Opinion
Mexico is about to legalize marijuana, which will put pressure on Biden to do the same | Opinion

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Andres Oppenheimer
Wed, March 17, 2021, 3:36 PM
Mexico’s likely approval of a law legalizing marijuana — possibly next month — could make it the world’s most populated country to authorize cannabis for medical and recreational purposes. That would have a big impact on the United States.

Some marijuana industry advocates, such as Mexico’s former President Vicente Fox, say the country’s expected passage of this law will push the Biden administration to legalize weed at the federal level in the United States.

On March 10, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies approved the marijuana-legalization bill, which the pro-government majority Senate is expected to pass. It then would be signed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Mexico’s Supreme Court has given an April 30 deadline for Congress to pass the bill.

Fox, who is on the board of the Khiron Life Sciences Corp. — a Colombian-Canadian partnership that sells marijuana for medical uses — told me that he expects Mexico to become a major exporter of legal marijuana to the United States.

“The new bill leaves the door open to imports and exports of marijuana products,” Fox said in an interview. “And marijuana production is five times cheaper in Mexico than in the United States.”

Even if U.S. or Mexican authorities place regulatory hurdles, Fox said that, “Mexico will take advantage of this opportunity. There are 1 million border crossings a day to and from Mexico to the United States, and Mexico will have a big (price) advantage in U.S. states where marijuana is not legal.”

Mexico’s legalization of cannabis would come two years after Canada authorized the possession, sale and distribution of the product. That means that the United States would be sandwiched between two major markets that allow marijuana for medical and recreational use. (Snipped for length)

The article ends - But as late Mexican Nobel laureate poet Octavio Paz once told me, “Geography is the mother of history.” If both Mexico and Canada have legalized marijuana, it will be only a matter of time until it spills over to the United States.

Just think about it- America "sandwiched" between two "legal cannabis" countries. That sounds kind of nice to me! (But unless Mexico is growing better cannabis than the last time I checked, American-grown cannabis is still better.)

Granny