Cannabis legalization in Mexico is postponed once again due to the pandemic

The path to freeing cannabis in Mexico is still a thorny one. The bureaucratic process requires a regulation to allow operations that, for the time being, are being delayed.

And now after much discussion, the deadline has been rescheduled once again for the Ministry of Health and Cofepris, the agency that regulates public consumption, to draw up the long-awaited regulation on cannabis. The deadline given by the court to draw up the regulations was 180 days.

If you want to know more about cannabis, how cannabis legalization in Mexico is getting stalled by the coronavirus pandemic, and to find out the latest hemp news, download the Hemp.im mobile application.

The legalization of cannabis is still in a bureaucratic loophole

The Judiciary reactivated the deadline that obliges the Secretariat of Health and Cofepris to elaborate a regulation that allows the use of medicines with cannabis, this as a result of the sentence issued by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, in favor of an amparo presented by a family last year.

The amparo in review 57/2019 was filed by the parents of a child with epilepsy, so that their son, a minor, would have urgent access to a treatment based on cannabidiol oil (CBD), useful against cerebral ischemic epilepsy, among other things.

What hinders access to these treatments is that the Ministry of Health and the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris) have not issued regulations to allow the use of these cannabis-based drugs.

The deadline given by the court to draw up the regulations was 180 days (end of December), recalled the Health Ministry, which assured that they are still working to create such regulations.

The government blames the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the delay

Due to the health emergency caused by COVID-19, the Federal Judiciary Council had suspended the activities of the jurisdictional bodies since March 18th, and therefore the procedural deadlines and terms would not run from that date, with the exception of urgent matters.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Health recalled in a statement that the Agreement was amended to extend the suspension until June 30th, with the same exception.

However, a few days ago, the court of knowledge determined that the sentence of the amparo in review 57/2019 is considered an urgent case, and the Health Secretariat was notified on June 9th about this definition, informing the unit itself.

“In this sense, the period of 180 working days to create the rules for the medical use of cannabis, continues to run again from June 10th, 2020, the date on which the notification of the aforementioned agreement took effect,” the ministry argued in a statement.

In this regard, the unit recalled that it was initially notified of the ruling on September 9th, 2019, and therefore assured that the approximate date of expiry of the deadline September 9th, 2020. It added that “all areas of the Secretariat continue working on the issue, to comply with this ruling.”

The agency headed by Jorge Alcocer described that since the notification of the ruling last year, the Office of the Attorney General of the Ministry of Health requested the head of Cofepris, José Alonso Novelo and its General Legal and Advisory Coordinator.

He did so “in order to carry out, as a matter of priority and urgency, the work related to the harmonization of the regulations aimed at complying with the ruling, with the participation of the Subsecretariat of Prevention and Health Promotion, the National Commission against Addictions, Psychiatric Care Services, and other substantive areas of the Secretariat in the matter.”

__

(Featured image by Markus Spiske via Pexels)

DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a third party contributor and does not reflect the opinion of Hemp.im, its management, staff or its associates. Please review our disclaimer for more information.

This article may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “become,” “plan,” “will,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties, including those discussed in the following cautionary statements and elsewhere in this article and on this site. Although the Company may believe that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof. Additionally, please make sure to read these important disclosures.

First published in La Marihuana, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

Although we made reasonable efforts to provide accurate translations, some parts may be incorrect. Hemp.im assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions or ambiguities in the translations provided on this website. Any person or entity relying on translated content does so at their own risk. Hemp.im is not responsible for losses caused by such reliance on the accuracy or reliability of translated information. If you wish to report an error or inaccuracy in the translation, we encourage you to contact us.