MEXICO CITY (AP) – President Enrique Pena Nieto said Thursday that he will ask Mexico’s Congress to raise the limit on decriminalized marijuana for personal use to 28 grams, or about one ounce.
Currently, only possession of five grams, or less than a fifth of an ounce, is exempt from prosecution.
“This means that consumption would no longer be criminalized,” Pena Nieto said.
Possession of larger amounts would still be punishable under drug trafficking laws.
“We Mexicans know all too well the range and the defects of prohibitionist and punitive policies, and of the so-called war on drugs that has prevailed for 40 years,” Pena Nieto said. “Our country has suffered, as few have, the ill effects of organized crime tied to drug trafficking.”