Mexico Extends Cannabis Legalization Deadline, Again

In late 2018 Mexico made international headlines and turned heads in the global cannabis community when Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that cannabis prohibition was unconstitutional.

When the Supreme Court rendered the decision, it mandated that lawmakers in Mexico pass a cannabis legalization measure to codify the decision and work to implement the new law.

Originally, the Court issued a one-year deadline. Unfortunately, as the one-year deadline approached, it was obvious that lawmakers in Mexico would not be able to comply with the mandate.

Lawmakers in Mexico were granted a new deadline, April 2020, and that extension was also not met due to COVID. Yet another deadline was granted, and yet another time the deadline could not be met, as reported by Reuters:

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday blamed small draft errors for a delay in approving a new law that would legalize cannabis and effectively create one of the world’s largest weed markets.

The bill was due to be approved by Dec. 15, but it has been delayed to next year, with the Supreme Court setting a new deadline of April 30 for the law to be passed, according to local media.

Lopez Obrador said legislators requested a delay as time had run out before the current session in Congress ended this month, meaning there was not enough time to review the bill.

The legalization saga in Mexico continues. Will the latest deadline be met, or will another extension be requested? Only time will tell.

Lawmakers in Mexico have expressed optimism on several occasions just for that optimism to deflate. Eventually, Mexico will push the effort over the top, but it is anyone’s guess when that will be. Hopefully, it is sooner rather than later.