By Luis Fernando Campos — Educannabis
On May 2nd, the Global March for Cannabis Decriminalization hit Mexico City, Medellín and Santiago at the same time. A firsthand chronicle from the street.
On May 2nd, Paseo de la Reforma stopped being the avenue of political agreements and became something far more uncomfortable for those in power: a question that can no longer be ignored.
15,000 people marched from the Palacio de Bellas Artes to the Angel of Independence, while Guadalajara, Monterrey, Mérida, Tijuana, Pachuca and Toluca joined from their own streets — making this the first time in recent memory that the movement spilled beyond the capital. At the same time, another column was moving through Medellín. In Chile, where authorities denied the permit to march on public streets, the cannabis community found its own way to show up regardless. Three countries. One day. One demand.
What happened that day was not just a protest. It was proof that Latin America’s cannabis movement has stopped asking for permission to speak in a single voice.
What’s happening with cannabis in Mexico? Where is the law?
To understand why 15,000 people march, you first need to understand what hasn’t happened.
The ruling Congress keeps ignoring: in 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court declared the prohibition of recreational cannabis use unconstitutional — a landmark ruling that legally obligated Congress to legislate. Four years later, Congress still hasn’t.
In the meantime, Mexico has accumulated over 12,000 individual authorizations for personal cultivation and consumption issued through court injunctions, a grey market of storefronts operating without a regulatory framework, and users who grow and consume knowing their fate depends on whichever police officer finds them and whatever mood they’re in. The Instituto RIA puts it plainly: the country lives a daily corruption, where arrests are discriminatory and fall disproportionately on …
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Author: High Times Contributors / High Times
