The Coronavirus pandemic has without a doubt thrown the world into a panic and confusion not seen since the Spanish flu. With over 2 million people infected worldwide and more than 100,000 lives lost, the situation is clearly dire, and governments across the globe have been scrambling to prevent a global catastrophe. This has mainly consisted of passing measures to encourage social distancing and self-isolation.
In the U.S., cannabis has been deemed essential by most states with legal marijuana programs, thus allowing the industry to keep operating during the lockdown. However, the pandemic has led to the cancellation of global cannabis trade shows, as well as putting a damper on various marijuana legalization campaigns.
The industry recently received another blow after the Mexico Senate decided to postpone most legislative activity, casting serious doubt on the future of marijuana. Late last year, the Supreme Court gave the legislature six months to approve legislation that legalizes all forms of cannabis, and those six months expire on April 30. Now, with most legislative activity shut down, many wonder whether the bill will be approved in time.
This postponement is part of the second phase of contingency measures to help fight the Coronavirus pandemic.
Although three senate commissions acting in unison approved a legalization bill earlier this month, the document would still need to go through the Senate plenary and the Chamber of Deputies before being signed into law by the president. If approved, the bill would launch one of the world’s largest adult-use programs by population, and it would legalize recreational marijuana as well as cannabis for medical and industrial hemp use.
The bill would have made it legal for adults to possess up to 200 grams of marijuana and it would allow home cultivation with certain limits. It also contains restrictions on foreign investment and vertical and horizontal integration to allow domestic, disadvantaged communities to reap the benefits of legalization. It could still see more modifications along the way, but the decision by the senate to reduce activity will undoubtedly play a role in how lawmakers will proceed.
And even if the bill is approved by the April 30 deadline, Mexico will have to wait years for a functional legal cannabis market. It would require the creation of a government cannabis regulatory institute that would have to draft regulations for the industry before it could begin accepting license and permit applications.
It would be interesting to hear what industry actors like Green Growth Brands Inc. (CSE: GGB) (OTCQB: GGBXF) think the ramifications of this delay will have on the cannabis industry on the sub-continent.
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