Mexico is about to create the world’s biggest legal cannabis market with only one more vote before legalisation remains.
Mexico has passed a bill through their senate to legalise weed for their population of 130 million people. The controversial motion has only one more step to becoming legislation which is a vote in the lower house of congress. The advocates for the bill intend to make it the largest legal marijuana market in the world.
The senate vote was one of the biggest sesh scenes of all time, with Mexican senators placing green alarm clocks around the room that read “llegó la hora de regular”, which translated to english is “Time to regulate”. Senators also donned handkerchiefs with marijuana leave prints in their pockets – absolutely no chill from Mexico. Get it done, comrades.
Senator Julio Menchaca Salazar of the Morena party has been one of the main advocates for the legislation, who said “Without a doubt, this bill is going to be one of the most controversial we have ever had, but our obligation is to establish the rules of the game”.
The bill received several amendments in the days before the vote, and when the law was read out loud it was the first time hearing it for most of the senators. The bill passed almost unanimously with a count of 82 to 18, but not all senators who voted for regulation were happy with the amendments to the law.
In the weirdest turn throughout the whole process, two senators who have been vocal supporters of the legalisation of cannabis – Emilio Álvarez Icaza and Indira Kempis Martinez, along with activist José Rivera – randomly announced that they would vote against the bill in the senate.
Rivera took the stand in the senate and proceeded to ask for forgiveness from the Jewish community, as he compared the Mexican government’s prohibition of the drug to a “Subtle holocaust”, and then put on an oversized coat to imitate holocaust camp slave workers. Rivera said the bill’s requirement for permits for growing and smoking weed in public was relative to the Nazis.
Rivera finally went out to the government building’s patio and lit up what could only be described as a romping stomping marijuana cigarette. The senate’s official Twitter account was forced to end the live stream of the conference.
🔴 Sesión ordinaria de la Cámara de Senadores, del 19 de noviembre de 2020 https://t.co/dUmavg2NSD
— Senado de México (@senadomexicano) November 19, 2020
The government hopes that the legislation will help to stimulate the economy and ease the tension of drug violence which has ravaged country for decades. Whether the bill is to succeed in passing the congressional vote will remain to be seen, but by gum I put my stamp of approval on it. Go off, Mexico, you good thing.
