Given that the dawn of 4/20 is indeed upon us all, those living in America's weed-friendliest states will likely be too consumed with passionate bouts of celebration to remember that not everyone has the same privilege of readily available (and legal) marijuana. However, as noted by Mexico's president Enrique Peña Nieto on Tuesday, other global forces are starting to see the light when it comes to legal weed.
"I am giving voice to those who have (in public forums) expressed the necessity of changing the regulatory framework to authorize the use of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes," Peña Nieto said during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as quoted byReuters. "We should be flexible to change that which has not yielded results." According to Peña Nieto, the so-called War on Drugs most certainly falls under the category of not yielding results.
Criminal defense experts tellCNN that, despite the enthusiasm for Peña Nieto's announcement, he's not so much breaking new ground as he is "adapting to reality on Mexican streets." Mexico's health code already allows for citizens to possess small quantities of the good stuff for "personal use," though Peña Nieto's efforts aim to expand that approach by taking legislative measures to legalize medical weed while potentially decriminalizing small quantity possessions outright.
On the American side of the weedvolution, the Drug Enforcement Administration recently revealed that it planned to announce a decision on the federal reclassification of weed no later than July of this year. With legal weed sales projected to hit $20 billion by 2020, the momentum would appear to be very much in favor of additional greenery.
