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Advocates Rally In Mexico City To Demand Cannabis Reform

Written by Hazel Norman on . Posted in Policy.

Cannabis reform advocates held a rally in Mexico City, Mexico over the weekend, demanding that the nation’s government modernize Mexico’s cannabis policies and regulations to expressly permit personal recreational cannabis activity.

“Thousands of people flooded the streets of Mexico City this weekend demanding free access to marijuana and cannabis.” reported 7 News Miami in its original coverage. “Protesters who took part in Saturday’s demonstration also demanded having the ability to grow it for personal use and for legal harassment of using it to end.”

The effort to modernize Mexico’s cannabis policies has taken many turns in recent years. Back in June 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in an 8-3 decision that the prohibition of private recreational use of cannabis by adults was unconstitutional.

“Today is a historic day for liberties,” Supreme Court president Arturo Zaldívar said at the time. The Court’s decision did not extend to recreational cannabis commerce, and consuming cannabis in public remained prohibited in Mexico.

Part of the Court’s decision tasked lawmakers in Mexico with introducing, approving, and implementing an adult-use cannabis legalization model that included expressed limits for private adult-use activity and regulated sales. However, political leaders in Mexico have continued to fail to codify those public policy changes.

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Mexico Regulators Authorize The Cultivation Of Low-THC Hemp

Written by Hazel Norman on . Posted in Policy.

Mexico’s Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) has reportedly authorized the cultivation of low-THC hemp plants (less than 1% THC content). The announcement came in the form of a letter from the regulatory entity to Semillas Endemicas Mexicanna SA de CV, as originally reported by El Planteo.

“The official document acquired by El Planteo, dated November 17, 2023 but delivered to the company just a few days ago, details the conditions under which Semillas Endemicas Mexicanna SA de CV can operate. The permit includes the import of seeds, the processing of hemp for the extraction of cannabidiol (CBD), and the marketing of cannabidiol oil as long as the THC content in the plants does not exceed 1%.” El Planteo stated in its coverage.

“The requested health authorization must guarantee that the plant produces concentrations equal to or less than 1% of THC and under the monitoring, control and safety conditions that the competent authority deems appropriate to protect health and public order.” the regulator’s letter reportedly stated.

Mexico has a long history with the cannabis plant, with many of the nation’s unregulated cannabis farms historically supplying markets in the United States. In recent years, as cannabis policy modernization has spread across the United States, less cannabis has been smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

In December 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court deemed barriers to low-THC cannabis production to be unconstitutional. The 2021 decision followed a previous Supreme Court decision in 2019 that deemed prohibition policies pertaining to the personal use of cannabis to be unconstitutional.

Despite the landmark decisions in Mexico, there was still the regulatory hurdle of COFEPRIS granting its authorization for low-THC hemp production. The issuance of authorization to Semillas Endemicas Mexicanna SA de CV by COFEPRIS marks a major milestone for Mexico’s emerging legal industry.

COFEPRIS emphasized that the issuance of this one authorization does not open the floodgates to unfettered low-THC hemp production in Mexico.

According to an April 2022 market analysis, New Frontier Data determined that “Mexico’s total 2021 imports of hemp fiber were worth $120,000, or 25 metric tons (MT). Among those, imports from the United States accounted for 63% of the total of the tariff group, with France second at 29%.”

“In 2020, Mexico’s CBD market was valued at $9.2 million.” New Frontier Data stated. “Expectations over the next seven years are for the market to reach $675 million.”

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Is This The Best Way To Change Minds About Cannabis?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Policy.

If you are a cannabis patient or consumer, then chances are you have had to deal with people who pass judgment on you because of cannabis. The stigma surrounding the cannabis plant and those who use it is unfortunate and unfair.

More often than not people generally oppose cannabis use and cannabis policy modernization efforts due to a lack of knowledge, and in some cases, outright ignorance. However, there is one powerful tool that cannabis advocates have that can change people from opponents to supporters – the truth.

The hard facts and science regarding the cannabis plant and cannabis use are heavily in favor of cannabis advocates, and often it’s just a matter of opponents being effectively educated about what researchers have determined via clinical trials, studies, and other academic investigations.

That principle is at the heart of the findings of a new study that was recently conducted by researchers in Mexico. A team of researchers affiliated with Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Culiacán, Mexico conducted a study “spanning the period from November 2022 to March 2023.”

“The objective of the present study is to ascertain the prevalence and perception of cannabis consumption in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, while also examining the impact of disseminating scientific facts about cannabis on attitudes and public perception.” the researchers stated.

“A total of 3162 adults residing in the primary cities of Sinaloa, namely Culiacán (n = 1133), Mazatlán (n = 1050), and Los Mochis (n = 979), were interviewed. The surveyors employed a random/convenience sampling technique.” the study listed regarding its methodology.

The survey participants included 1668 women and 1494 men, aged 18 to 76 years. Regarding educational backgrounds, “5.3% had no formal education, 32% completed elementary school, 40% held a high school diploma, 21% had a bachelor’s degree, and 1% had a postgraduate degree.”

Participants were provided factual information about cannabis if they opposed it, referred to as an “intervention” for the purposes of the study.

“Our analysis delved into examining attitudes towards cannabis both before and after the intervention, with a particular focus on the influence of education and age. By stratifying the data based on these factors, we aimed to explore how different educational backgrounds and age groups may respond to the intervention and whether any significant changes in attitudes were observed.” researchers stated.

“The results of our analysis demonstrated substantial differences in attitudes towards cannabis before and after the intervention, considering taking the participants’ educational levels and age categories. These differences were statistically significant, indicating that the intervention had a noticeable impact on shaping attitudes towards cannabis among different population segments.” researchers concluded.

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Why Does Mexico’s President Disparage The NBA’s New Cannabis Policy?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Policy.

Outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is not a fan of cannabis consumption, nor is he a fan of current cannabis policies in the United States. He will soon be replaced by a new incumbent after the dust settles on the 2024 election, as both major political parties in Mexico have nominated other people for the upcoming election.

It appears that the outgoing politician is getting crankier by the day, particularly towards cannabis policy north of his nation’s border, and for reasons that do not quite make sense to me, he extends that resentment to the National Basketball Association (NBA).

During one of his recent daily press conferences, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador aired grievances against the United States in regard to the nation’s overall approach to drug policy. He described it as “very misguided” and asked why the NBA permits cannabis use by its players.

Mexico’s president was referring to changes made to the NBA’s cannabis policy earlier this year via the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement that removed random cannabis testing for NBA players. Previously, NBA players were randomly tested four times a year and held to the lowest THC threshold out of all of the professional sports leagues (ten times less than the Olympics’ threshold).

It’s worth noting that the NBA does not technically allow its NBA players to consume cannabis. The new collective bargaining agreement still has provisions and processes for teams to mandate that a player enter the league’s substance abuse program if they deem the player’s cannabis use to be problematic.

Regardless, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s fixation on the NBA’s cannabis policy change is puzzling given the fact that it has nothing to do with U.S. politics. The NBA, just like every other sports league and basically every employer, gets to set its own cannabis testing policy.

This is not the first time that Mexico’s current president has disparaged the NBA’s current cannabis policy. Back in April, he tweeted various nonsense about the War on Drugs, with a heavy emphasis on fentanyl, then tried to pivot those grievances towards the NBA, seemingly indicating that because the NBA doesn’t randomly test for cannabis now, somehow that contributes to the fentanyl epidemic.

Cannabis prohibition does not work, and that is true in professional sports just as much as it is in society. It does not lower cannabis usage rates. All it does is provide authorities the ability to selectively enforce prohibition policies on individuals that they do not like, and that is unacceptable by every measure. Hopefully Mexico’s next president will be on the right side of history.

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Why Is Mexico’s President Criticizing The NBA’s New Cannabis Policy?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business, Entertainment, Policy.

Earlier this month the National Basketball Player’s Association, which represents National Basketball Association (NBA) players, announced that it had reached a tentative agreement with the league.

“The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, pending ratification by players and team governors. Specific details will be made available once a term sheet is finalized.”

The NBA is, of course, the world’s most popular basketball league and has historically prohibited cannabis and penalized its players both for cannabis use as well as when players were subjected to criminal justice cannabis prohibition away from their teams. With that in mind, the tweet below from a top NBA analyst is very significant:

As Shams noted in his tweet, the NBA had already suspended cannabis testing for multiple seasons, starting with the ‘bubble’ that ended the 2020 pandemic-plagued season. It appears that once the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the league becomes official, cannabis prohibition as it pertains to player use will finally end.

For many people, myself included, the end of cannabis use prohibition in the NBA is welcomed news (albeit long overdue). However, one notable exception to the joy is Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who fired off the following tweets in response to the NBA’s announcement, in addition to airing other grievances about the U.S.:

The first tweet auto-translates to, “They threaten to invade, they sell high-powered weapons in their street markets, they do nothing for their young people, they suffer —unfortunately— from the terrible and deadly fentanyl pandemic, but they do not address the causes. They are not concerned with well-being, only money, nor do they strengthen moral, cultural and spiritual values; Nor do they limit drug use, on the contrary, they encourage it even in sports. It’s sad and decadent.”

The second tweet auto-translates to, “Thats what I refer. It is contradictory and hypocritical:” followed by a link from Mexican media outlet El Universal, which reported that the NBA will allow the use of cannabis by its players.

There are two grievances aired by Mexico’s President in his tweets that I feel compelled to air my own grievances about, being that both of the points made by Mexico’s President are ignorant and born out of reefer madness prohibitionist strategies.

The first is that cannabis use is ‘encouraged in the NBA’ via the reported new collective bargaining agreement. At no point in time has the player’s union, the NBA, or the United States government encouraged NBA players to use cannabis. Rather, the players have argued that the league’s prohibition on cannabis use is harmful and that it serves no purpose in the NBA.

On the NBA side of the equation, league officials have tried very hard to maintain the status quo and keep cannabis prohibition in place for decades. I know this to be true because I advocated alongside 18-year NBA veteran Clifford Robinson who did everything he could to right the wrongs that he was subjected to by the NBA, and any and all inquiries we pursued with the league between 2016 and Clifford’s untimely passing in 2020 were either ignored or met with stoner jokes.

My experience lobbying the NBA to get on the ride side of history in tandem with Clifford Robinson is anecdotal to be sure, however, there is zero evidence that NBA leadership has ever ‘encouraged’ cannabis use by players, and there’s a mountain of evidence backing up the opposite. The NBA is not encouraging its players to consume cannabis, rather, the NBA is agreeing to allow its players to consume a plant that is 114 times safer than alcohol – a plant that is now legal in a growing list of states and the entire nation of Canada.

The second point made by Mexico’s President that I take direct issue with is his selective pearl-clutching when it comes to the fentanyl crisis. The fentanyl crisis is definitely serious, which is why it is a huge disservice for Mexico’s President to try to shame the cannabis plant given that a laundry list of peer-reviewed studies have found that cannabis can be an effective substitute for opioids.

Cannabis reform quite literally helps reduce opioid use by allowing people to use a far-less harmful substance, and studies have demonstrated that people will do so when given the legal opportunity. Cannabis is an effective pain management tool, and anyone that claims otherwise is likely profiting off of the opioid industry in some way.

If Mexico’s President truly cared about addressing the fentanyl issue then he would be encouraging governments, sports leagues, and other powerful entities to embrace the cannabis plant rather than demonize it. Yet, that is clearly not President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s goal. His goal is to apparently push reefer madness talking points on Twitter, and that is truly unfortunate.

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Cannabis Seizures At U.S./Mexico Border Fall To Historic Lows

Written by Frank Schuler on . Posted in Policy.

By many measures the border shared by the United States and Mexico has served as ground-zero for the war on cannabis. It’s no secret that for many years cannabis, among other things, was smuggled from Mexico into the United States via various entry points along the nations’ shared border.

Starting in 1996 the demand for cannabis smuggled from Mexico into the United States started to be impacted by domestic cannabis reform in the U.S., with California becoming the first state to pass a medical cannabis legalization measure in U.S. history.

Between 1996 and 2012 several other states also passed medical cannabis legalization measures, many of which involved the launch of a regulated industry, and in 2012 two states passed the nation’s first set of adult-use legalization measures. Every state-level industry that launched in the U.S. further reduced the demand for smuggled cannabis from Mexico.

Cannabis is still smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, however, the rate of it happening continues to dwindle, as reflected by recent seizure statistics from the United States Border Patrol. Below is more information about it via a NORML news release:

Washington, DC: Federal law enforcement agents are intercepting historically low quantities of cannabis at the southern border, according to newly released data provided by the US Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Protection.

Federal statistics reveal that Border Patrol and Field agents confiscated an estimated 155,000 pounds of marijuana at the US/Mexico border in 2022. That is down almost 50 percent from 2021 totals and continues the dramatic decline in seizure volume that began in 2013, when nearly 3 million pounds of cannabis were confiscated at the southern border.

Some experts have previously speculated that licensed retail access to cannabis products, which began in Colorado and Washington in 2014 and is now available in almost half of all states, has significantly undercut demand for imported Mexican cannabis. According to conclusions provided by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, “In US markets, Mexican marijuana has largely been supplanted by domestic-produced marijuana.”

Separate data published last year by the Government Accounting Office and elsewhere indicates that interdiction efforts along the US border now typically involve the seizure of small quantities of marijuana and no other controlled substances.

Drug seizure statistics are available online from the US Customs and Border Protection website.

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Cannabis Seizures Decrease 98% At California/Mexico Ports Of Entry

Written by Hazel Norman on . Posted in Policy.

Historically, one of the most active parts of the world for illegal cannabis activity was along the border shared between the United States and Mexico. For many years cannabis cultivated in Mexico, and farther south in the hemisphere, was smuggled into the United States where it was then transported throughout the country.

In recent years, however, demand in the United States for cannabis cultivated in Mexico has decreased significantly due in large part to the rise of the legal state-level cannabis industry in the U.S. Starting in 1996 with the legalization of medical cannabis in California, a number of states have passed medical cannabis reform measures in the U.S. that resulted in the spread of legal sales.

The spread of legal cannabis commerce in the United States accelerated in 2012 with the passage of adult-use legalization measures in Colorado and Washington State, leading to a situation today in which nearly half of the United States now lives where cannabis is legal, with many states currently allowing home cultivation to some degree in addition to permitting sales.

With all of that in mind, it likely doesn’t surprise anyone that cannabis seizures at California/Mexico ports of entry are down in recent years. Although, it may surprise people just how much of a reduction has occurred. Below is more information about it via a media release from United States Customs and Border Protection. As you will see, cannabis seizures are down 98%:

SAN DIEGO — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers conducting security operations at California’s ports of entry with Mexico performed more than 54.7 million inspections of travelers, seized more than 50 tons of illegal narcotics, and apprehended more than 74,000 immigration violators during federal fiscal year 2022.

CBP’s field office in San Diego includes the San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate, Calexico, Andrade and the San Diego air and seaports of entry.

During the fiscal year, which ended September 30, CBP officers at ports in San Diego and Imperial counties inspected more than 29 million passenger vehicles, more than 1.5 million trucks, almost 19,000 buses, and nearly 16 million pedestrians entering the U.S.

The total amount of narcotics seized during the year at California’s six ports of entry with Mexico decreased 38 percent compared to the previous period. Marijuana seizures decreased 98 percent to 320 pounds; cocaine seizures decreased by 23 percent to 8,790 pounds; heroin seizures decreased 68 percent to 764 pounds; methamphetamine seizures decreased 23 percent to 86,227 and fentanyl seizures increased by 5 percent to 6,704 pounds.

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Former President Of Mexico Says Legalization Will ‘Pull The Rug Out From Under The Cartels’

Written by Frank Schuler on . Posted in Policy.

In late 2018 Mexico’s Supreme Court issued two landmark rulings that collectively overturned the country’s prohibition on cannabis as it pertained to recreational use. The rulings established case law that all judges in Mexico are bound by, however, they did not completely set the nation’s cannabis policies, particularly when it comes to the cannabis industry.

Part of the Court’s decisions back in late 2018 involved Mexico’s federal lawmakers being tasked with passing a measure that would fully implement cannabis legalization and create an adult-use cannabis industry. The Court’s mandate initially involved a one year deadline.

Unfortunately, the deadline was not complied with and a series of extensions have come and gone, yet cannabis advocates in Mexico are still waiting on a measure to be passed. Various lawmakers have hinted that legalization is near, although at this point many cannabis advocates inside and outside of Mexico see those claims as nothing more than pandering.

Former President Vicente Fox is an outspoken advocate for cannabis reform in Mexico, and he recently expressed frustration with how long the process is taking to get a legalization measure passed. He also made a bold claim regarding legalization and Mexico’s drug cartels. Per excerpts from Mexico News Daily:

Former president and marijuana entrepreneur Vicente Fox has urged lawmakers and authorities to legalize and regulate the recreational use of cannabis, asserting that doing so will reduce cartels’ income and create economic opportunities for ordinary Mexicans.

“Sometimes people ask why [former] president Fox is involved in this, if he is a druggie or pothead – a lot of people make jokes,” Fox said. “I’m involved in this because I’m totally convinced that legalizing marijuana is [the way] to pull the rug out from under the cartels.”

How long it will ultimately take for lawmakers in Mexico to pass a legalization measure and for regulators to launch a regulated adult-use industry is anyone’s guess at this point. In fairness, it is worth recognizing that creating a regulated adult-use industry in Mexico is much different compared to many other countries due to the cartel factor.

The industry has to be set up in a way that minimizes the involvement of cartels in the regulated industry, as it’s very logical to assume that cartels will work very hard to gain as much of Mexico’s legal market as possible. If that proves to be the case it will be very unfortunate. Mexico not only needs to legalize cannabis, it also has to legalize the right way.

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Cannabis Smuggling Continues To Decline Along US/Mexico Border

Written by Frank Schuler on . Posted in Policy.

Cannabis advocates have long pointed out that when cannabis is prohibited, people still consume it. That may seem obvious, however, cannabis prohibitionists try very hard to pretend that it’s not the case.

Under prohibition, cartels largely control cannabis sales. That is not to say that every single piece of cannabis is cartel controlled. Surely there are people cultivating small amounts where cannabis is prohibited and presumably some of them are selling it to other people.

In a regulated cannabis system, many consumers and patients will gladly make their purchases at licensed outlets, even if it is a little more expensive compared to unregulated sources.

That is on full display along the border shared by the United States and Mexico where cannabis seizures continue to decline year after year as legalization continues to spread north of the border. Below is more information about the latest numbers via a news release from NORML:

Washington, DC: Federal officials report a significant drop in the quantity of marijuana they are seizing at the US international border, according to data compiled by the US Department of Homeland Security.

According to reporting provided by borderreport.com, “Department of Homeland Security agencies in FY2021 seized 160 tons of marijuana, an average of 874 pounds a day. With three months left in the current fiscal year, agents have seized 56 tons, an average of 408 pounds a day.”

The year-over-year decline in marijuana-related seizures at the border is in stark contrast to more generalized data showing a 25 percent increase in overall drug-related seizures. However, it is consistent with longstanding trends previously reported by the US Drug Enforcement Administration that determined, “In US markets, Mexican marijuana has largely been supplanted by domestic-produced marijuana.”

Separate data provided earlier this year by the US Government Accounting Office reported that “most drug seizure events [at the US border] involved only US citizens (91 percent), of which 75 percent involved the seizure of marijuana and no other drugs.” Of those seizures, 69 percent involved only personal use quantities of cannabis.

Additional information on drug-related border seizures is available from the US Customs and Border Protection agency.