Mexico Could Legalize Marijuana Soon

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Oct. 17, 2019: Mexico’s senate is set to vote for a bill to fully legalize marijuana in the next few days, a key lawmaker told Reuters.

If approved by the Senate, the proposal would then proceed to the lower house for a vote. The news comes as 13 cops were killed in an ambush by a Mexican drug cartel in the municipality of Aguiilla.

Sen. Ricardo Monreal, the leader of Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party in the upper chamber of Congress, told Reuters that a vote on the proposal will take place later this week or next week.

“The end of the prohibitionist policy is good for the country,” he said, adding that the bill would regulate personal use and sale of marijuana as well as research into the plant. It also contemplates creation of cooperatives that would grow marijuana plus a new regulatory agency.