Mexico gambles on legalising cannabis

Plan aimed at putting a dent in black market - but some fear that violence may increase

Mexican soldiers destroy a marijuana plantation near La Rumorosa town in Tecate.
Mexican soldiers destroy a marijuana plantation
(Image credit: Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images)

Mexico’s senate has approved a landmark cannabis legalisation bill in a landslide vote that paves the way for it to become the third country in the world to market the drug.

Senators voted 82 to 18 to approve the measure, with seven abstentions, marking a “major shift in a country where drug cartel violence in recent years has claimed over 100,000 lives”, Reuters reports.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs. 

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.