Mexicans can now legally go to the pharmacy to purchase Marijuana. The Chamber of Deputies authorized the medical and scientific use of marijuana in Mexico by approving, with 301 votes in favor, 88 against and two abstentions, the reforms of the Senate to the General Health Law and the Federal Penal Code.
The ruling eliminates the prohibition and penalty for the medicinal use of marijuana and scientific research, as well as those derived from its production and distribution for these purposes, said the Legislative in a statement.
The Senate gave the approval on December 13, 2016, to allow the medical and scientific use of marijuana in the country, based on the initiative that the Executive presented on April 21 that year.
Regulations will be put in place
The Ministry of Health will design public policies to regulate the medicinal use of pharmacological derivatives of marijuana, such as tetrahydrocannabinol, its isomers, and stereochemical variants. Also to regulate the investigation and national production of the same.
With the reforms, tetrahydrocannabinol is established "as a psychotropic substance with therapeutic value" that does not represent a public health problem when its concentrations of the isomers indicated in the law are less than or equal to 1%.
Products with concentrations of 1% or less derived from cannabis sativa or marijuana and those with industrial uses "may be marketed, exported and imported" based on health regulations.
Marijuana no longer a 'prohibited plant.'
The ruling removes marijuana from the category of "prohibited plant" to allow its sowing, cultivation, harvesting, preparation, acquisition, possession, trade, transportation, supply, employment and use "for medical and scientific purposes" under the terms and conditions of the authorization issued by the Executive.
Senator Francisco Salvador López Brito, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), welcomed Mexico as one step closer to establishing the therapeutic use of marijuana "for the health of Mexicans."
"The use of cannabis in medicines has successfully helped in some cases of treatment of diseases," said López Brito, chairman of the Senate Health Commission, in a statement.
He emphasized that the therapeutic properties of cannabis include help in the area of pain and motor coordination, as well as the benefits of multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and palliative therapy in some cases of cancer and AIDS.
