It looks like Mexico City is doing everything it can to stay on the liberal side of life. Just recently, in 2007, they legalized abortion. It was a controversial move but one that marked the path for their future decisions. So, in 2009, gay marriage was legalized as well. Obviously, Mexico City was looking to expand its horizons and even though they got a lot of criticism for it, they stuck to their guns. Miguel Mancera, the mayor of Mexico City, was recently elected and he doesn’t plan to go away quietly. In fact, his plans are quite focused on the legalization of marijuana. Being left-wing, that doesn’t surprise us one bit. He is not alone in this fight either. Several people from the Mexico City assembly are currently plotting to submit bills by the end of October.
Benefits of Marijuana Legalization
However, Mexico City is not exactly Utah and the crime rates over there can be staggering. As you can imagine, wherever there are drugs – there are also drug cartels. Mexico City is no exception. They seem to be making the most out of the situation and even though the government is quite adamant in their war on drugs – it just doesn’t seem like this is a battle that can be won. So, instead of going into an aggressive fight with the drug cartels, Mexico City officials plan to open cannabis clubs throughout the state. This would be great for two things. One, it would keep the profit in safe hands and not in the potato bags of drug cartels. And two, cannabis clubs are an ingenious way to avoid federal laws.
Cannabis Clubs
The cannabis clubs would consist out of a 100 members per club. The members would pay a membership fee and by doing so, they would be eligible for 50 grams of marijuana per month. Mexico City also has its own drug policy reform group which is called Cuphid. Cuphid has been active for quite some time and performing research regarding this issue. According to their evaluations, cannabis clubs would be responsible for around 70% of the marijuana trade in Mexico City. That’s $30 million a year, something to definitely brag about if they get it done right. This way, the end user will have a lot of control on what exactly are they getting and who they are getting it from. Because, let’s face it, prohibition doesn’t work; education does. If this actually works, everybody else could learn a great deal from Mexico City, especially in the area of marijuana regulations.
A Billion Dollar Business
Mexico City is not exactly a place where weed is frowned upon. It has decriminalized marijuana so you could basically walk around with about to a 1/6 of an ounce of pot and not get arrested. That doesn’t mean you could walk around with anything more than that since the police is quite strict with people who get caught carrying more than the allowed amount. That being said, we believe cannabis clubs are an excellent step forward in marijuana regulations. Don’t even get us started on the economic benefits of marijuana legalization. Because when you have a $30 million market, you can expect it to grown into a billion dollar business.
New York state is, probably, finally joining the twenty first century by allowing medical marijuana. I think Mayor Cuomo needs to suffer the fate advocated by our Constitution’s author, throw the rascal out if he stands in the way of such overdue legislation. Taking the profits from slimy narotrafficantes and giving it equally slimy politicians would create a bureaucracy and cushy government jobs to be doled out, a small amount of commerce and one or two jobs for the average Joe. Maybe taxpayers could refuse lazy politicians their incessant demands for ever more taxes since we’d no longer be arresting, adjudicating or incarcerating dangerous criminals for marijuana related offences. Last, since we purport to be country run by ‘the will of the people’, when did the government become our parents telling what we can or can’t consume?