Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Mexico Set to Become World's Largest Legal Cannabis Market

Mexico Set to Become World's Largest Legal Cannabis Market

Mexico is home to the world's most powerful drug cartels, who have terrorized the country for years. But the country is poised to try something different in tackling the gangs by legalizing at least one of their products: marijuana.
Mexico is set to become the world's largest legal cannabis market as its Congress wraps up legislation in the coming weeks to legalize pot throughout the supply chain, from farming to distribution and consumption.

Mexico's Senate passed a bill in late November legalizing recreational marijuana. Lawmakers in the lower house say they will approve a bill by February, though they want to raise the amount of pot consumers may possess in public beyond the Senate bill's limit of 28 grams, or about an ounce.

Currently in Mexico, one can possess up to five grams of marijuana without being arrested. The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has been legal since 2017.

"We are committed to regulating cannabis. It's a right of Mexicans," said Ignacio Mier, the majority leader in Mexico's lower house and a member of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Morena party, in an interview.

Mexico's supreme court ruled in 2018 that marijuana prohibition was unconstitutional.

The court acted after several legalization advocates brought court cases. One group even took over a small park in front of Mexico's Senate and planted about 800 cannabis plants to pressure lawmakers. Activists regularly harvest the plants and smoke the buds.

Mr. Mier said lawmakers and senators will work together in January to agree on a common bill to put up for a vote in both houses.

The legal changes will turn Mexico into the third country in the world to legalize cannabis nationally for recreational use after Uruguay and Canada, and the largest with a potential consumer market of 88 million adults.

Mexico's legalization will more than double the number of people globally who have access to legal marijuana, creating momentum for legalization efforts world-wide, said Maritza Perez, director of the Office of National Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, a U.S.-based advocacy group for legalization.

Because Canada and Mexico will now have legal cannabis, it will also likely lead to pressure on the U.S. to follow suit, she said.

Fifteen U.S. states have legalized recreational marijuana, including California and Illinois. Oregon recently became the first state to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs, even heroin and cocaine.

Authorities expect that Mexico's legalization for recreational use will increase competition, bring prices down and reduce the black market for drug gangs.

Some 200 organized crime groups operate in Mexico, where around 270,000 people have been killed since 2006, mostly in cartel-related violence, according to government estimates.

Many analysts, however, say legalization will have only a marginal impact on drug gangs.

Nowadays, cannabis makes up only a small percentage of the gangs' profits, whose main sources of income are cocaine, synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and gasoline theft.

Cartels have also diversified into widespread extortion of small businesses across Mexico.

Marijuana seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border have plummeted about 83% since fiscal year 2015, an indication that cannabis is a declining business for the Mexican cartels in part because of the increasing legal market north of the border.

"Whoever thinks that this law will be a magic bullet that will reduce crime and homicides is being too optimistic," said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former intelligence official.

Mr. Hope and others say Mexico's only realistic chance at confronting cartels is through capable law enforcement institutions, which the country has failed to build.

Mexico's army has been mostly deployed since 2006 in taking on the increasingly powerful cartels. In that time, the homicide rate climbed as rival gangs fought each other and security forces.

Mexico's move toward legalizing pot is part of a broader movement by countries to try new approaches to tackle abuse of harmful drugs by users and going after the networks that supply them.

For the past few decades, those policies have focused almost exclusively on a law-and-order approach, jailing drug users and trying to disrupt the global supply chains of illicit drugs.

Portugal, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Argentina, Costa Rica and Mexico have implemented some form of decriminalization as it relates to possessing small amounts of drugs for personal use.

That has led to a decrease in the transmission of HIV and other infectious diseases and reduced overdose deaths, said Ms. Perez of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Activists say the current bill doesn't go far enough in helping create a legal industry that can effectively compete with cartels.

Under the Senate bill, consumers could possess up to 28 grams of marijuana in public and grow up to eight plants per household. The possession of more than 28 grams would be subject to fines, and from 200 grams on it would be a crime punished with jail time.

Companies and individuals would be able to produce, distribute, sell, export and import cannabis under strict guidelines and permits set up by a newly created regulator, a process expected to be long and costly.

"The Senate's bill envisions an over-regulated market that will inevitably raise costs for legal players, making it hard for them to compete with the illegal market," said Juan Francisco Torres Landa, a lawyer with Hogan Lovells who fought for years to legalize pot in Mexico. "This excessive regulation will also make the whole process vulnerable to government corruption."

That is why lawmakers at the lower house want to raise the amount of cannabis consumers can possess to 200 grams, and make it easier and quicker to obtain the permits to produce and sell cannabis, Mr. Mier said.

They are also against the creation of a new regulator, and instead want the health ministry to award the permits.

Meanwhile, the two dozen cannabis activists who occupy the park in front of Mexico's Senate say they won't go away. Their improvised camp includes several sleeping tents, a kitchen and a bathroom connected to the city's sewage. A small cannabis museum made of thick planks is under construction.

The activists are negotiating with local authorities to turn the park into a permanent cultural center consecrated to marijuana, said Pepe Rivera, one of the activists.

"We don't accept limits to our right to harvest and consume freely," Mr. Rivera said recently while walking through bushes of marijuana. "If you don't need a license to drink as much alcohol as you like, why should we accept any limit to our right to smoke marijuana?"
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×