Mexico has made its first significant step towards the legalisation of cannabis, having just ruled that the smoking of cannabis is a fundamental human right. Actually, I’d go so far as say that’s a stride, not a step. Mexico’s Supreme Court recently ruled 4 to 1 that outlawing the possession, consumption, and cultivation for personal use of cannabis is a violation of fundamental human rights. Yeah, that’s definitely a confident stride.
So what’s all this then?
Well, let’s put our foot on the brakes a bit first, because whilst that sounds insanely significant – which it is – remember that I only described this as a stride towards legalisation, not actual legalisation. You see, if we’re being technical, and in matters of the law we always must, then Mexico’s Supreme Court have only really ruled that stride in favour of four people.
Wait, what?
Yeah, you see, this particular case brought before the Supreme Court involved four members of Mexicans United for Responsible and Tolerant Consumption (Sociedad Mexicana de Autoconsumo Responsible y Tolerante in Spanish, or SMART for short), who have been filing legal arguments since 2013 to be able to grow, possess, and smoke cannabis. The grand culmination of all their hard, legal-argument-filing, work being that they recently got to stand before the Supreme Court and argue their case.
The main crux of their argument was the idea of ‘the right to the free development of one’s personality’, which is something keenly preserved by the Mexican constitution. The basic gist of which is that it’s a person’s own right to control their life, as long as they aren’t harming anybody else. An example of which the Washington Post gave as being that the state couldn’t prevent you from eating a lots of junk food, even if it wasn’t good for you.
Personally, I’d say it’s more like putting too much air in a balloon. Rather, the state can’t tell you to stop putting too much air in your balloon, even though they know that it may burst.
Anyway, the four argued their case and four to one the Supreme Court agreed. However, unlike in the US where when the Supreme Court rules it becomes the law of the land, the Mexican Supreme Court only rules for the plaintiffs. This means that the four involved can now smoke and grow weed like it’s nobody’s business because the Supreme Court just declared that it isn’t. Which, let’s be honest, sounds a little unusual, four Mexican stoners just lording it over the rest of the country, joints aloft.
However, I meant it when I said that this really is insanely significant. If four more similar cases come before the Supreme Court, whether they be groups or individuals, and each of those cases receives a similar ruling to this one, then bong’s your paraphernalia, the ruling is a national one. And let’s face it, it just wouldn’t make sense for the Supreme Court to not hand down a similar ruling, lest they look hypocritical.
Aside from that, though, this also sets a precedent that lawmakers could take advantage of and push for legalisation through legislation, instead of waiting on those four rulings to happen. Should they wish to do so, of course. Which, according to the Drug Policy Alliance’s Hannah Hetzer could come down to one key cannabis decision;
“The big key component that everyone in Mexico talks about in shifting drug policy is whether California legalizes in 2016. Washington and Colorado are one thing. But with California, with the significance it has and the border it shares with Mexico, if they legalize, it would be too much to ignore.”
It seems then that this could go one of two ways, or rather, it could go two of one way; legalisation – it’s just a matter of which way Mexico gets there.
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