At the time, I had the unfortunate luck of having my name be Pacheco, which in Mexico was used as slang equivalent to “stoner” in the U.S.
Political experts in Mexico are predicting that the Senate will pass this bill and send it to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador , who is expected to sign the bill into law.
In 2018, the Mexican Supreme Court issued a ruling essentially doing away with the prosecution of people caught with marijuana for personal use.
Taxes on the legal sale of marijuana could bring needed money to Mexico; however, the social and law enforcement issues surrounding the legalization of this drug are similar to those in the U.S.
Could they simply pivot and produce legally for the legal market? Will the legal market eventually lead to overproduction, which will hurt their prospects in the long run? The cartels might deem the trafficking of marijuana to be less attractive if it is legalized and may choose to focus on the harder drugs.
It is expected that many tourists from Texas, the only border state where recreational marijuana has not been legalized, will take trips across the border to purchase and use the drug.
If marijuana is legalized within the near future, will the Mexican government have time to put in place regulations and policies to properly administer a nationwide, legalized-marijuana program? This is a major challenge in U.S.
Finally, Mexico’s ability to capitalize on the legal sale of marijuana will depend on its ability to efficiently collect taxes from growers and vendors.
Mexico, the country in which the word “marijuana” originated as a reference to cannabis, will have a lot of work to do to roll out legalized marijuana.