Mexico's landmark cannabis bill one step closer to becoming law (updated)

Medical Marijuana

09/03/2021 23:07

(Adds comments from Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s CEO)
    MEXICO CITY, March 8 (Reuters) - Two special committees of
Mexico's Lower House of Congress late on Monday approved a draft
bill to decriminalize marijuana and sent it on to the full
chamber, bringing it a step closer to creating one of the
world's largest markets for the drug.
    The bill, backed by the administration of President Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador, would mark a major shift in a country
bedeviled for years by violence between feuding drug cartels.
    The health and justice committees approved the bill, which
easily passed the Senate in a vote in November and would create
a huge new legal market for marijuana that companies are eager
to tap.
    The full chamber of the Lower House was scheduled to discuss
the bill on Tuesday, two congressional sources told Reuters.
    The bill would create the Mexican Institute for the
Regulation and Control of Cannabis, which will issue five types
of licenses for the cultivation, transformation, sale, research
and export or import of marijuana.
    Only people 18 years and older, and with a permit, may grow,
carry or consume marijuana and its derivatives, according to the
bill, which Lopez Obrador's ruling MORENA party proposed. MORENA
has a majority in both chambers of Congress.
    Lopez Obrador has argued that decriminalizing cannabis and
other narcotics could help combat Mexico's powerful drug
cartels.
    Colombian-Canadian Khiron Life Sciences  KHRN.V , Canada's
Canopy Growth  WEED.TO  and The Green Organic Dutchman
 TGOD.TO , as well as Medical Marijuana, Inc.  MJNA.PK  from
California, are among the firms eyeing opportunities in Mexico.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2L333W
    Legalized cannabis could "dramatically transform the
economic landscape" in Mexico by creating jobs and increasing
tax revenues, said Medical Marijuana, Inc. chief executive
Stuart Titus. 
    "Much of Mexico's cannabis has been black market and the
resulting war on drugs has proven to be a huge failure. The
right solution: legalize, tax and regulate this market," he
said.

 (Reporting by Diego Ore; Additional reporting by Sharay Angulo;
Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Sonya
Hepinstall)
 ((anthony.esposito@tr.com; +5255 5282 7140;))