Mexican legalisation delay apparently political tactics

Mexican lawmakers are asking for a fourth extension of deadline for a legal cannabis law to pass, not to fix newly discovered problems as they claim - it's a political tactic to delay legislation beyond an upcoming election cycle and the morally conservative president's law to distance the country, says an opposition member in the Chamber of Deputies. While prominent senators say the MPs created the problems, the bill proposed by the Senate already contained the human rights violations and inconsistencies by the time it got into the House of Commons, Movimiento Ciudadano MP Martha Tagle Martínez told Mugglehead. "I think it's a ruling party game because we are in election time and many are still struggling with the idea of ​​regulating cannabis use because of what could happen in the elections," explains Tagle, adding, that the president's view of marijuana is very conservative and he would not like to see it legalized. If the entire Senate approves the bill, it would be up to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to oppose it, and that would prove his opposition, Tagle says. "He has no vision of the human rights of marijuana users," she says. The president believes drug addiction is at the root of all problems in the country, especially drug trafficking, Tagle said. Before news surfaced Wednesday night that the senators were requesting another extension to approve the recreational cannabis legislation ordered by the Supreme Court, lawmakers appeared to be pushing the legislation through despite obvious problems. Tagle believed the law would be passed as it is and then amended to correct the errors, but the request for an extension comes as no surprise to her, either. The President of the Senate, Eduardo Ramirez Aguilar, made it clear at a press conference on Thursday that talks were still in progress, but the Senate could apply to the Supreme Court for an extension and an agreement would be reached in the next few days on how to proceed. If an extension is approved, the law will be left to the next term after the current one ends in August. This week the Justice Commission and the Second Legislative Studies Commission approved the law and only the Health Commission was missing before it is put to the full Senate for vote. That final approval would put the law on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's desk, one signature away from making it official. Ramirez says the extension talks began Wednesday night after discovering changes by the House of Commons led to inconsistencies and human rights violations in the bill. The Senate Board of Directors and the Political Coordination Group both claimed that the House of Commons caused the problems. "It was approved by a majority in the Senate because the majority of the political groups supported it and we worked on it for many months, but the MPs modified it," said the President of the Senate Coordination Group, Ricardo Monreal Avila, in a press conference on Thursday . They want to modify the law to help reduce crime and provide social justice to those affected by prohibition, he added.