- Title: Mexican lawmakers push for marijuana legalisation
- Date: 15th October 2019
- Summary: GUERRERO STATE, MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) SOLDIER UPROOTING MARIJUANA PLANT SOLDIERS WITH MARIJUANA PLANTS THAT HAVE BEEN UPROOTED SOLDIER AT PLANTATION
- Embargoed: 29th October 2019 23:55
- Keywords: marijuana legalisation drugs Mexico lawmakers Senate MORENA Ricardo Monreal
- Location: MEXICO CITY AND GUERRERO STATE, MEXICO
- City: MEXICO CITY AND GUERRERO STATE, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA004B17MTZB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Mexico's Senate will vote for a bill to fully legalise marijuana in the next few days, a key lawmaker told Reuters, marking a major step toward changing the country's approach to the drug by removing it as a source of income for violent drug gangs.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist critic of Mexico's longstanding drug war, has since last year signalled his openness to the decriminalisation of marijuana as part of a broader shift on security policy.
Sen. Ricardo Monreal, the leader of Lopez Obrador's MORENA party in the upper chamber of Congress, said in an interview late on Monday (October 14) that a vote on the proposal will take place later this week or next week.
If approved by the Senate, the proposal would then proceed to the lower house for a vote. MORENA and its allies hold majorities in both chambers.
Late last year, the Supreme Court said lawmakers have until Oct. 24 to legalise marijuana, after the high court ruled in several cases that the prohibition of the recreational use of the drug violates the constitution.
Under Mexican law, if the Supreme Court issues the same decision five times, the rulings set a precedent and the court can then order the establishment of a regulatory framework as well as further legal action.
(Production: Josue Gonzalez, Rodolfo Pena Roja) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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