Cannabis fair held in Mexico ahead of legalization

Exhibitors gathered at a cannabis expo in Mexico City to showcase their products for the first time since the country's government started issuing permits allowing residents to grow and possess marijuana under certain conditions.

ExpoWeed Mexico 2021 launched its ninth edition on Friday.

Aisha Méndez is operating a stand at the expo over the three-days and is promoting the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

"It is a plant that has generated a lot of interest over the years, controversy, stigmas," she said.

She said that she believed residents were coming to the expo to "break their stigmas and learn more about the plant."

Jiangsu Wongpec is the CEO of the Cannabis Trust Fund and is also running an exhibit at the expo.

He is calling for further changes to existing cannabis laws.

"Today, you can already consume it freely, but there is no place to buy it. You are free to grow it, but there is no place to buy the seeds," he said.

He believed that the current laws would create problems for lawmakers who would have to tweak legislation to cover a "new freedom of self-consumption and self-cultivation."

This year, Mexico's Supreme Court ordered the government to start issuing permits to grow limited amounts of marijuana after the country's Congress took too long to approve a limited legalisation law.

It doesn't mean that marijuana is legalised, but it will mean that any Mexican who asks for a permit will be able to consume it legally if they grow it at home and under certain restrictions.

The Court's resolution leaves it in the hands of the Ministry of Health and the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks to establish the details of the permits for self-consumption.

In 2019, the Court ruled that prohibiting marijuana was unconstitutional and gave lawmakers until April 30 to pass a law.

In March, the lower house approved a marijuana legalisation bill, but it bogged down in the Senate.

The use of cannabis for medicinal reasons has been legal in Mexico since 2017.