Sunday, September 14, 2025

Thousands toke up outside Senate for World Cannabis Day

Thousands of people toked up outside the Senate in Mexico City’s historic center on Wednesday to celebrate World Cannabis Day until around 9 p.m.

Marijuana smokers rolled joints, drank alcohol and bought drugs in open view on Reforma Avenue. A disc jockey and bands performed, and organizers held a Lucha Libre match in a ring set up on the avenue.

Some people had non-life threatening injuries after falling during a stampede, while other people were pushed into metal barriers. There was also some commotion when some drug sellers were expelled by the organizers.

Police didn’t intervene to prevent the consumption of drugs but helped keep traffic flowing along Reforma and Insurgentes avenues. Four grams of marijuana were being sold for 100 pesos (US $5).

The crowd chanted “There’s a gap in the law. Rights for stoners! … Legal weed raises morale,” and “Earth to sow it, freedom to smoke it,” as floods of people took over lanes of Reforma.

World Cannabis Day Mexico City 2022
Protesters outside the Senate called on lawmakers to vote on the legalization of marijuana as the lower house of Congress did in March 2021.

One of the event’s organizers addressed the crowd at 4:20 p.m, in reference to 420, a symbolic identifying number used in the pro-marijuana community. “We are no longer alone. Peasants, communal landowners, scientists, doctors … cannabis-smoking women and especially today the responsible stoners who are here in peace,” he said.

The organizer added that it was unlikely that there would be any changes in legislation before September.

The Senate has yet to legalize the possession of up to 28 grams of marijuana for personal use and the cultivation of up to six plants in one’s home, despite the motion passing the Chamber of Deputies in March 2021. At his regular morning news conference on March 31, President López Obrador said that there were some plans for wider legalization of “nondestructive drugs with light effects, as is the case with marijuana.”

Former president Vicente Fox is one person who is betting on marijuana legalization: he is the co-owner of a chain of cannabis stores that plan to open 130 outlets in 2022.

With reports from El Universal

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A soldier records the passage of Armed Forces helicopters during rehearsals for the Military Air Parade marking the 215th anniversary of the start of the Mexican War of Independence

Mexico’s week in review: Market confidence, China tariff hikes and military scandal

0
Other headlines included a move by Peru to declare Mexico's president a persona non grata, a one-year high for the peso and fatal roadway accidents that left over 100 people wounded.
News quiz

The MND News Quiz of the Week: September 13th

0
Trash, tariffs and tourism: Have you been following the news this week?
presdent sheinbaum in Sept 2025

Sheinbaum on the defense after China charges Mexico with enacting tariffs under US coercion

31
While rejecting any "appeasement ... toward unilateral bullying” (a clear reference to Trump), the president indicated a willingness to negotiate.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity