Mexico announces details of new cannabis laws

Mexico turned some heads this week with news that recreational cannabis is finally being seriously considered. The House of Representatives supports it, and the President is expected to sign it into law. Now the country has also announced what the cannabis regulations will look like when it is passed. Although the bill has yet to go through the Senate, it is expected to be passed since the MORENA party, which is pro-cannabis, also controls the Senate. "One of the most important aspects is that the National Commission against Addictions will have the mandate to regulate the industry," said Jorge Rubio Escalona, ​​local industry insider and co-founder of the Nabbis Group, about the new regulations. "The Department of Agriculture will regulate seeds, hemp and growth planning." In addition, the new regulations state that the National Seed Agency will regulate all seeds that will be allowed for personal growing, collective growing, retailing, research, and a separate category for hemp. The collective cultivation will consist of two to 20 people, with a limit of 50 plants per group and without the possibility of resale. The regulations also set out how labeling and branding will work, how packaging can be recycled, and they set out rules for the manufacture, production and marketing of hemp. There will be licenses for production, sales, distribution, extraction, research and even vertical integration. In order to grant these licenses, there will be a competence committee that takes care of oversaturated areas of the market, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, which defines cultivation as either indoor or outdoor. There are also rules for how cannabis marketing and advertising will work once a legal industry is in place. For now, it prohibits the sale of cannabis by mail and telephone, as well as vending machines. As the bill goes through the judicial process, these rules are taken into account and amended if necessary.