Thread: Mexico’s Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Personal Marijuana Use

Mexico’s Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Personal Marijuana Use

Ruling could pave way for legalization of recreational use

ENLARGE
A marijuana-legalization supporter wears a Lucha Libre wrestling mask decorated with a marijuana leaf, as he celebrates outside the Supreme Court in Mexico City Wednesday. PHOTO: EDUARDO VERDUGO/ASSOCIATED PRESS


By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Updated Nov. 4, 2015 5:05 p.m. ET 13 COMMENTS

MEXICO CITY—Mexico, a country racked by drug-related violence, took a major step toward fully legalizing marijuana on Wednesday, in the latest challenge to the U.S.-backed war on drugs in Latin America.

In a controversial ruling, Mexico’s Supreme Court decided in favor of four plaintiffs’ right to produce and consume marijuana for personal use, a move advocates hope will lead to the rapid legalization of recreational and medicinal marijuana nationwide.

“This court recognized the reach of personal freedom,” Justice Olga Sánchez said in voting in favor of the ruling, noting that the same chamber also legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. “People decide the course of their lives.”

The top court's ruling leaves the four plaintiffs as the only four individuals in the country who can legally produce and consume marijuana. Unlike U.S. class-action suits, the decision doesn’t automatically apply to everyone in the same category of people; anyone else who wants to grow marijuana would need to bring their own cases.

Mexican officials stressed after the ruling that marijuana production, sale and consumption remained illegal for the rest of the country. Opponents warned that legalization would increase use among teenagers and pose other public-health problems.

But advocates say the Supreme Court decision should also prod lower courts, the Mexican Congress and federal officials to move toward the full legalization of both recreational and medical marijuana use. Several justices, in explaining their finding in favor of the plaintiffs, called on Mexico’s Congress to debate the legalization of marijuana.

“It will force Congress and the executive to move in a certain direction,” said Armando Santacruz, an executive who is among the Mexican professionals who brought the case before the court.

Proponents say the decades long U.S.-backed war on drugs has failed, leading to powerful drug cartels that have challenged governments in countries like Mexico and Colombia and helped turn parts of Latin America into some of the deadliest in the world, with the region accounting for one in three murders globally.

Many analysts say making drugs like marijuana illegal raises prices and puts the industry in the hands of organized crime, much as Al Capone and U.S. gangsters controlled bootleg alcohol during Prohibition. Drug gangs routinely corrupt law-enforcement institutions in countries such as Mexico.

A decade of turf battles between rival drug gangs, and a federal government crackdown on the gangs, has unleashed violence that has killed more than 100,000 Mexicans and left more than 20,000 people missing.

Spurred by Mexico’s drug violence, Latin American leaders led by former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and César Gaviria of Colombia have been lobbying to end the war on drugs through legalizing consumption and regulating narcotics markets.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted that his government respects the court’s decision, which he said “will open a debate about the best regulation to inhibit drug consumption.”

He added that Mexico has called for a debate in the United Nations and other international forums about the best means of confronting the illegal drug trade.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it had no comment on the ruling.

The court decision came a day after voters in Ohio rejected an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use. Colorado, Washington, and Oregon have legalized the cultivation and sale of the drug for recreational use in recent years. Medical marijuana is now legal in 24 U.S. states, according to the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance.

In Latin America, Uruguay has gone further than any other country in legalizing everything from the use of marijuana to its sale and transport.

“This vote by Mexico’s Supreme Court is extraordinary for two reasons,” said Hannah Hetzer, senior policy manager of the Americas at the Drug Policy Alliance. “It is being argued on human-rights grounds and it is taking place in one of the countries that has suffered the most from the war on drugs.”

In Mexico, personal possession of small amounts of marijuana has been legal for more than a decade. But its cultivation and sale has been outlawed since 1926.

Marijuana remains a significant moneymaker for Mexico’s drug cartels, which export hundreds of tons of it to the U.S. every year. If Mexico and the U.S. were to fully legalize marijuana, it would hurt cartel revenues, but it wouldn’t cripple cartels entirely since they also rely on other drugs like cocaine and heroin, as well as kidnappings and extortion.

Mr. Santacruz and other advocates cite studies that argue a significant amount of urban crime has been spurred by the street sales of marijuana and other drugs, and a large number of those imprisoned on federal organized crime charges were linked to marijuana offenses.

Opponents, however, say legalization would increase marijuana use in Mexico, especially among adolescents.

“This issue should be decided by Congress,” said Marco Tulio Mendoza, a spokesman for the National Union of Parents, an advocacy group. “No way will it lessen the violence, and we think it can hurt families.”

Wednesday’s case had been brought by the civic group SMART, which sought an injunction against a previous ruling by a federal agency that prohibited the four individuals from growing and consuming their own marijuana.

The founding members of SMART, which stands for the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerable Consumption, sit on the board of Mexico United Against Crime, a group that seeks to influence government policy toward organized crime.

The group’s motivation in bringing the case was in part to lessen drug-related violence, Mr. Santacruz said.

“We aren’t a bunch of dope heads,” he added.

As the justices deliberated Wednesday, protesters chanted against the measure outside the courthouse in Mexico City and legalization proponents puffed on marijuana nearby.

Among those celebrating after the court’s ruling were the owners of a handful of small shops in the Mexican capital that in recent years have been selling equipment for hydroponic cultivation of marijuana and other plants in people’s homes.

“There will be a lot more interest in the crop as an alternative,” said Jorge Hernández, 45, owner of one of the stores in the trendy Coyoacan neighborhood. “People are going to see growing this crop as a good alternative to the danger of buying it in the street. We are going to have an increase in business. ”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/mexicos-...use-1446670474

Guess our U.S. Supreme Court is the only one in the world that thinks it's duty bound to legislate from the bench!