Court approves sale of marijuana seeds in pharmacies

Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from Milenio

Decriminalization of marijuana

The Second Chamber granted amparo for 3 people in order to obtain the seeds to cultivate and consume their own marijuana for recreational purposes; it is a "wake-up call" for Congress to legislate on the issue. 

  

by Rubén Mosso

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation opened the door for three citizens to legally acquire, for only one occasion, before the Cofepris [Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk], marijuana seeds in drugstores or in an establishment destined for the production of authorized medicines with derivatives of cannabis. 


Eduardo Medina Mora, president of the Second Chamber said that this ruling is a "wake-up call" for the Congress of the Union to legislate on the issue. 


"The sentences we issue in this Supreme Court must have a practical effect and be obviously deferential to reality ... I believe that the issue of behaviors that are prohibited in the General Law of Health regarding marijuana, should not be addressed from an exclusive or basic personal liberties point of view, but from a perspective of public policy.

"I think that these type of guidelines and restrictions should not be imposed from a seat of jurisdiction, but in any case, through the design of public policy of the work that falls to the Legislative Power, the foregoing without ignoring that the sentences issued by the Supreme Court, those that it has issued and that we are broadcasting today, are a wake-up call for the subject to be addressed and dealt with in a comprehensive manner in the corresponding headquarters, this is in the Congress of the Union."

The chamber unanimously approved the plan of Minister Joao Fernando Franco Gonzalez Salas, who proposed protecting Zara Ashley Snap Hartman, Maria Teresa Cecilia Autrique Escobar, and Fernando Ramos Casas. 

Snapp Hartman said they will try to meet with the authorities that will form the new government headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, because the retired minister Olga Sánchez Cordero, who is shaping up to be named Secretary of the Interior in the next administration, "has an opportunity in this topic" and it is extremely important. 


 

"It requires real regulation of the market that includes production, distribution and sale and export; what we are seeing internationally is that many countries are moving in that direction," said Zara Ashley. 

The plaintiffs had already obtained the protection of justice to cultivate and consume marijuana for recreational purposes, but claimed that they could not get the seeds legally. 

With this pronouncement from the Second Chamber, that amounts to eight ministers (four in the First Chamber) in favor of granting amparos to consume marijuana for recreational purposes. 

In this case, the amendments to the General Health Law published in the Official Gazette of the Federation were analyzed on June 19, 2017, specifically article 235 bis23, in which the design and execution of the Ministry of Health's obligation was established that regulate the medicinal use of drug derivatives of cannabis in any of its varieties.

And Article 29024 in which the possibility of importing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, products or preparations that contain them, including pharmacological derivatives of cannabis of any of its varieties, within the national territory seeds can be acquired legally. 

The draft of Minister Franco mentions that in terms of article 236 of the General Health Law, the defendant authority is in a position to issue a special permit for acquisition or transfer so that the plaintiffs acquire the necessary seeds to carry out the activities by those that have been protected. 

In the amparo under review 1163/2017, Minister Franco details that since the reform of Article 290 of the General Health Law, it is possible to obtain an authorization to import into the national territory narcotics, psychotropic substances, products or preparations containing them, including the pharmacological derivatives of cannabis of any of its varieties.