CBD in Mexico

Mexico: The government published yesterday in the bulletin of the state the decree prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes and e-liquids nationwide. This extends to CBD vapes as "similar systems without nicotine" (SSSN).  The decree is now in force. This comes after a ruling from the Supreme Court in October 2021 declared unconstitutional a similar decree issued by the president in 2020, which prohibited the sale of those products. The sale is also forbidden by Article 16 of the Tobacco Law, although the industry has been able to obtain individual court injunctions (amparos) to sell these products.

Mexico: President of the Senate Olga Sánchez Cordero and Senate majority leader Ricardo Monreal have agreed that legislation to regulate cannabis should be accelerated after a recent Supreme Court ruling that allows more than 5 g of cannabis for personal use, press reports. Lawmakers have worked for years on regulating recreational cannabis but have never been able to come to an agreement since the Supreme Court ruled that a blanket cannabis prohibition is unconstitutional. A timeline for such regulation remains unclear.

Mexico: The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has ruled that it is unconstitutional to make the possession of more than 5 g of cannabis for personal use a crime. Therefore, the quantity of cannabis possessed does not necessarily determine whether an individual intended to sell cannabis – which remains illegal – but rather that determination must be made based on the circumstances surrounding the possession, the court concluded. This ruling further expands the decriminalisation of cannabis possession for personal use, but Congress has still not enacted any legislation to fully legalise cannabis.

Mexico: Supreme Court justice Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá will propose to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) to keep a prohibition on possession of small amounts of cannabis, press reports. The SCJN ruled in 2015 that the country's blanket prohibition on cannabis was unconstitutional and has reaffirmed that position in several rulings since. However, no legislation to legalise recreational cannabis has been passed despite repeated efforts by Congress.

Mexico: Senate Majority Leader Ricardo Monreal Ávila told the media that he will push for an extraordinary session to reach an agreement on regulating recreational cannabis, as the second ordinary session is scheduled to conclude on Thursday 28th April. "I want us to work these next two or three weeks and call an Extraordinary Period, only for the effect of marijuana. But I still do not have the consensus of the parliamentary groups. I'm going to talk to them," Monreal stated.

Mexico: A federal court has ruled that the Federal Commission for the Protection of Health Risks (Cofepris) failed to comply with a Supreme Court ruling by denying a citizen permission to cultivate and use cannabis for recreational purposes, press reports. The Supreme Court found in June 2021 that the country's prohibition on recreational cannabis was unconstitutional and that citizens have a right to access it. In accordance with that ruling, the federal court here found: "The reported authorities are ordered, within a period of three days, provided that the complainant is of legal age, to grant her a health authorization to carry out activities related to the self-consumption of cannabis and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) for recreational purposes.”