A thriving marijuana garden has become a symbol of a Mexican legalization campaign and an oasis for cannabis smokers — right outside the Mexican Senate in the heart of the capital.
Activists in February created the small, but flourishing Mexico City plot next to one of the entrances to the upper house of the Mexican Congress to attract the attention of lawmakers.
Thanks to a combination of summer heat and abundant rain, the leafy green plants have grown to up to 2.5m tall.
Photo: AFP
“The aim is to claim our rights as responsible consumers,” said Enrique Espinoza, a 30-year-old member of the Mexican Cannabis Movement.
About 20 young people lovingly tend the garden where they cook, make products with hemp and sometimes spend the night in a haze of smoke.
The movement has a strict bring-your-own-joint rule.
It is forbidden to harvest and smoke the plants, which are grown simply as a symbol of the fight for decriminalization.
A landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2015 opened the door to the recreational use of marijuana in Mexico.
However, it is illegal to sell cannabis and each person may carry no more than 5g — something not always easy to verify during routine inspections.
“We began to organize ourselves because we’re already fed up with police extorting and fining us,” Espinoza said.
Attempts to increase the amount of marijuana people are allowed to carry have failed in Congress, which the courts gave until Dec. 15 to legislate on the matter.
Congress approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 2017 after a two-year fight.
The campaigners’ goal is for Mexico to follow in the footsteps of Uruguay, the world’s first country to legalize marijuana.
Under a law passed in 2013, Uruguayan citizens and residents can buy up to 40g of weed a month from pharmacies, or grow it themselves at home or as part of cannabis clubs.
According to the Uruguayan authorities, the move has led to a sharp drop in consumption of illegally produced cannabis.
Mexico, a country plagued by drug-related violence, has seized 168 tonnes of marijuana so far this year, more than any other drug.
Since the government militarized the fight against the powerful drug cartels in 2006, there have been 296,000 murders.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who blames most of the killings on organized crime, has left open the possibility of legalizing some drugs as part of his security strategy.
The activists say that it is high time for change and see their garden as a bastion of freedom.
“Why do we have to hide?” said Celeste, a 27-year-old courier enjoying a smoke next to her bicycle.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS