Mexico top court OKs marijuana use, could pave way for legalization

Reuters news agency quoted Mexican Supreme Court Justice Arturo Zaldivar as saying the vote was not an indication that marijuana was harmless but rather that “prohibition is a disproportionate measure”.

Government officials sought to reinforce the message on television, telling the public that the ruling was isolated to the four people who brought the case and insisting that the cultivation of marijuana remained illegal for the rest of the population.

In another decision that energized Mexico’s marijuana legalization movement, a judge in September permitted 8-year-old Graciela Elizalde to use medicinal cannabis to treat a Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy that strikes victims with violent convulsions and can lead to cognitive dysfunction.

It argued that by prohibiting the group’s members from using marijuana, the state was denying their constitutional right to self-determination.

While the ruling is limited to the group’s four members, supporters say it opens the door for others to seek a similar decision from the court.

“A comprehensive drug policy involves promoting a culture of legality that allows us to overcome the ‘anything goes, ‘ the cult of mafia and violence that has stimulated drug trafficking in many countries”, Santos said in May.

“Mexico has promoted in worldwide forums, including the United Nations, a broad discussion to confront the global challenge of drugs”, he wrote on Twitter.

His group hopes the ruling will force Congress to consider legalizing marijuana, a move they say would strip drug cartels of a key source of cash and therefore reduce the country’s runaway violence.

The debate on marijuana use is an important issue for Mexico, one of the world’s biggest producers of the drug.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he will respect the ruling.

The ruling does not extend to commercial marijuana enterprises, like the ones that exist in Washington and Colorado in the U.S. But it does represent, perhaps, the first declaration of the right to use marijuana as a fundamental human right.

“We won!” said a jubilant Francisco Torres Landa, a lawyer and one of the four members of Smart.

Proponents of legalizing marijuana staged a low-key demonstration outside the court building, including displaying information on marijuana use and legalization.

In 2009, Mexico passed a law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party has proposed several initiatives to decriminalize cannabis.

An October opinion survey by the Parametria polling firm said that 77 percent of Mexicans opposed legalizing marijuana, while 20 percent supported the idea.

The court’s decision could be Mexico’s first step in reforming the country’s strict drugs laws, which are considered the most conservative in Latin America.