The Economist - USA (2020-11-21)

TheEconomistNovember 21st 2020 29

1

I

n the public park outside Mexico’s Sen-

ate is a small forest of cannabis. Volun-

teers are staging a plantón(a punning way

to say “sit-in”) to spur lawmakers to legal-

ise weed. They tend to the 1,000 or so plants

on Tuesdays and Thursdays, spraying or-

ganic insect repellent and picking up

leaves. One volunteer, Leopoldo Rivera,

calls it “the first non-clandestine planta-

tion” of marijuana in Mexico since the gov-

ernment banned it a century ago. The po-

lice did not uproot the seedlings in

February, when the plantónbegan. Some

plants are now three metres (ten feet) tall.

As The Economistwent to press the Sen-

ate was due to debate a bill that would make

Mexico the third country in the world, after

Uruguay and Canada, to legalise cannabis

for recreational use nationwide. For Mexi-

co, the change seems riskier. It was once

the world’s largest producer of cannabis.

Campaigners for legalisation are watching

how it will go in a country where organised

crime is strong, the rule of law is weak and

much of the economy is undocumented.

Mexico’s route to legalisation has been

unusual, and its arrival may yet be delayed.

The president, Andrés Manuel López Obra-

dor, has so far been a bystander. In contrast

to the United States, where voters have en-

dorsed reform in state referendums, legal-

isation has little popular support in Mexi-

co. Surveys suggest that just over a third of

voters favour it.

Campaigners have used the courts rath-

er than popular pressure to advance their

cause. Anti-discrimination advocates cre-

ated an opening in 2001 by arguing suc-

cessfully for adding to the constitution a

right to “human dignity”. The Supreme

Court cited it in 2008 when it ruled that all

Mexicans have a “right to the free develop-

ment of personality”. The principle has

been used to protect unfaithful spouses

and posh schoolboys who refuse to cut

their hair. Now dope-smokers may benefit.

In Mexico it takes five separate rulings

by the Supreme Court to establish a prece-

dent that citizens can invoke to disregard

unconstitutional laws. Since 2011 the court

has been able to invoke its fifth ruling to in-

struct Congress to rewrite laws by a certain

date. In 2019 it used that power for the sec-

ond time, directing Congress to revoke

laws banning cannabis. The deadline has

been extended twice, first because law-

makers could not agree, then because of co-

vid-19. The new one is December 15th.

The jolt of legalisation could provoke

gangs to behave even more violently than

now. Mexico’s murder rate, among the

world’s highest, reached a record last year.

Gangs could diversify faster into such ac-

tivities as kidnapping and cooking fenta-

nyl. But the shock will be smaller than it

would have been four decades ago, when

cannabis exports were their core business.

Americans in 11 states buy cannabis legally

for recreational use and will soon be able to

do so in four more. They have less need to

import illegal Mexican weed. Mexico’s do-

mestic market is relatively small. In 2016

just 2% of Mexicans surveyed admitted to

smoking marijuana in the previous year.

The United States’ hard line on narcot-

ics prevented previous attempts by Mexico

Mexico

Smoke and legislators

MEXICO CITY

Will Mexico become the third country to legalise cannabis for recreational use?

The Americas

30 IllegalfishinginEcuador

31 Bello: Peru’s politics of destruction

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