The parliamentary group of the PRD political party in Mexico’s Chamber of Representatives presented an initiative that promotes the decriminalization of the recreational use of marijuana.
The initiative presented by the vice-coordinator of the PRD, Verónica Juárez Piña, also proposes that cultivation of up to three Marijuana plants be legal for personal consumption, without the need for any registration.
“Our initiative proposes a paradigm shift to the prohibitionist model that has generated violence, truncated the lives of many families and imposed on consumers disproportionate penalties that must be purged in penitentiaries under terrible conditions”.
“It has also overloaded the judicial system, exceeded the capacity of prisons and absorbed a huge amount of resources that could have been allocated to a more effective social policy,” said Juarez Piña.
The document, which was turned over to the United Health and Justice Commissions for an opinion, seeks to make an adjustment to various provisions of the General Health Law to eliminate all restrictions on the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, including proposing to eliminate the criminalization of possession of five grams of marijuana.
“Eliminate the five grams for cannabis use and personal consumption and that the federal authority issues the regulations regarding the cultivation, processing, distribution, transportation and wholesale of cannabis. That is to say, that the Ministry of Health and the Sagarpa are the authorities in charge of designating the zones and parcels of land where their cultivation is allowed, as well as issuing the corresponding licenses for the manufacture and distribution of medical products to consumers, ” said the representative.
It seeks to create recreational consumer clubs, where there are restrictions on age, number of members, and the prohibition of other substances sale.
“A State that decriminalizes personal possession and the use of cannabis for recreational purposes should provide tolerance policies for its low volume consumption, in such a way that the operation of the Recreational Consumer Clubs are an option, where they would be allowed to operate under strict conditions for the granting of their respective licenses that include age restrictions for access, the number of partners, the prohibition of the sale of other psychoactive substances and advertising restrictions, “he explained.
It also seeks to create the National Specialized Prevention Program for Adolescents and Therapeutic Justice mechanisms for problematic consumers.
“This initiative proposed by the parlamentary group of the PRD represents the beginning of discussions regarding the decriminalization of cannabis use that, we are sure, will occur during the course of this Legislature. This is how we state our position and invite all political actors to express themselves and assume, from this moment, a proactive opinion that allows us to arrive at the best conclusions for our country, “he said.
“Many different voices have spoken about this issue. Former President Zedillo expressed himself against the prohibitionist policy in recent days, as did former President Vicente Fox and members of the incoming government, but it has not been possible to have a document to guide the discussions and frame a serious and informed debate including government and civil society, ” the representative concluded.
Source: The Baja Post
