Mexico City Marijuana Legalization Bill In The Works

Legislators in the notably progressive Mexico City are making waves again, this time concerning marijuana. The Party of Democratic Revolution, the PRD, has announced that it is preparing legislation that would allow the consumption of medicinal marijuana in Mexico City. Lawmakers plan to introduce the bill in September. It would allow certified marijuana patients to carry up to 25 grams, grow their own and freely smoke it at home or in designated clubs, the Huffington Post reported.

The bill may not yet allow for recreational smoking, but legislators said that it was a promising step in that direction. Officials said that the bill could play a positive role in directing police attention to pressing issues as marijuana law violators are often non-violent.

"Most marijuana consumers aren't addicts," Mexico City Deputy Vidal Llerenas Morales told Mexican news outlet Sin Embargo. "They aren't criminals. They are functional people."

RELATED: Marijuana Legalization Push By U.S. Businessmen Backed By Ex Mexican President Vicente Fox; Would A U.S. Brand Distribute Mexican Pot?

The news of the bill comes shortly after former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who governed the country from 2000 to 2006 under the National Action Party, or PAN, banner, said he supported the legalization of marijuana in the country. He later said that he would grow marijuana himself if such a law passed. Current President Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolution Party, PRI, said he is in favor of prevention programs as opposed to outright legalization.

"I'm not in favor because it's not just about legalizing marijuana," Peña Nieto told CNN in December. " It seems to me that this would open up the possibility that some sectors of the population could wind up consuming much more harmful things."

More than 70,000 people have died for reasons pertaining to Mexico's drug war that began in 2006 when former President Felipe Calderon of the PAN party took office. Peña Nieto has promised to curb the direction in the war, ultimately ending it and controlling Mexico's drug trade through preventionist measures.