Supreme Court ruling could lead to marijuana legalization in Mexico

A young person smokes pot at a protest in Mexico.

(Image credit: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 5 November 2015

On Wednesday, Mexico's Supreme Court decided, 4-1, that four plaintiffs should be able to grow and use marijuana for their personal use, a ruling that advocates hope will lead to legalizing recreational and medicinal marijuana in the country.

"This court recognizes the reach of personal freedom," said Justice Olga Sanchez. "People decide the course of their lives." Although the ruling only permits the plaintiffs to produce and consume marijuana, some of the justices have called on the Mexican Congress to debate legalization, The Wall Street Journal reports. For more than a decade, it has been legal in Mexico for a person to possess small amounts of pot, but cultivating and selling marijuana has been illegal since 1926.

In Mexico, violence related to drug gangs has left 100,000 people dead and 20,000 missing over the last 10 years. While opponents say legalizing marijuana will lead to more young people using pot, advocates say that a substantial amount of urban crime is connected to street sales of marijuana and other drugs, and many of those in prison on federal organized crime charges are there because of marijuana-related offenses. Armando Santacruz, an executive who was one of the professionals who brought the case before the court, told WSJ that his goal is to decrease violence linked to drugs. "We aren't a bunch of dope heads," he said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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