User:MoisesFarias/sandbox

Legalization
In 2009, Congress of Mexico decriminalized the possession of five grams in order to reduce the illicit drug activity.

Mexico passed a bill through both the Senate and the Lower House of Congress with the majority, and the President Enrique Pena Nieto signed the bill on June 19th, 2017. This legislation legalized cannabis-based substances for medicinal purposes. These substances, pharmacological derivatives of cannabis, such as oils and pills must contain no more than 1% THC. Cannabis does not trigger violent behavior as many think; other drugs such as which are addicting such as tobacco and alcohol are what trigger this behavior.

Mexico's Citizen's View on Cannabis
In 2008, only about 7% of Mexico’s citizens were for legalizing cannabis. This was due to the fact that the war on drugs in Mexico has claimed thousands of lives and many directly associated cannabis as a bad thing. That number has increasingly grown in the last few years to about 33% for legalizing the recreational use. The recent legislation of cannabis in the United States could be a factor to make Mexico rethink its oppressing view in cannabis. The majority of Mexico’s citizens identify as Catholic. The Catholic Church is against the use of cannabis whether it is for medical or recreational purposes. It believes that legalizing marijuana will encourage teenagers to start using it recreationally, even though the legalization in Colorado states otherwise. This was due to the fact that the war on drugs in Mexico has claimed thousands of lives and many directly associated cannabis as a bad thing. Pope Francis himself said that decriminalizing the drug does not solve the addiction problem, and only by educating the young is what builds values and gives them hope for the future. Furthermore, the most popular Catholic newspaper in Mexico published opinion-based articles in which claimed that cannabis had no medical benefits.

Medical Benefits
Although Mexico’s recent marijuana legalization is very limited, a full legalization in the future could come with both positive and negative effects in the country.

Medical Marijuana Inc. created another company called HempMeds(R) Mexico soon after RSHO-X(TM), a cannabis-based oil, was the first product of this kind legalized for import to Mexico. This company for now is the only one that has imported cannabis-based products for medical use in Mexico. So far, this has only benefitted a couple of families but they have been working closely with HempMeds(R) Mexico to provide and ensure those in need have access to it. More specifically, they helped a Family whose daughter, Graciela Elizalde, suffered from a severe form of Epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome by reducing Graciela’s seizures. Days this case was made public, the Center of Social Studies and Public Opinion (CESPO) surveyed citizens, 82 percent were against cannabis sales, 73 percent were against legalizing cannabis for recreational use, but 76 percent were in favor of legalizing it for medical purposes.

Detrimental Effects
Cannabis does not trigger violent behavior as many think; other drugs such as which are addicting such as tobacco and alcohol are what trigger this. However, the National Institute of Drug Abuse that the use of cannabis has detrimental effects on people such as loss of intellectual capacities, negatives effects on memory and learning.

Help the Economy
Because this bill is very recent and the legalization of cannabis is very limited through this legislation, there are no facts about how Mexico’s economy has been affected. The State of California also passed a legislation legalizing the use of recreational marijuana. A legally regulated market could help by bringing in at least $1.2 billion in tax revenues, in addition to from sales, it could also save over $200 million in law enforcement costs such as arrests and imprisonment. The legalization could also create thousands of jobs through spin off industries and decrease the unemployment rate. In total, it could potentially bring about $3-5 billion in direct use of cannabis, and about $12-18 billion in spin off industries to California’s economy. If Mexico was to decriminalize medical and recreational marijuana, it would have a similar outcome and benefit Mexico’s economy.

War On Drugs
Making the use of medical and recreational use of cannabis legal, the tax imposed will most likely be really high. This would give the drug dealers and cartels advantages by lowering the price and increasing their demand. By slowly decriminalizing cannabis, this could pose a threat to drug dealers whose main source of income is marijuana. However, this could also further encourage drug dealers and cartel to focus on harder drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, on top of others. Instead of making this war on drugs more manageable for Mexico, it could make it even worse costing even more lives.