Ever since a federal judge ruled in favor of importing cannabidiol in 2015, Mexico steadily moves closer to becoming the world’s largest legal cannabis market.
The cannabidiol more commonly known as CBD importation in the cannabis market was ruled by the judge for medical reasons.
In a story captured on NBCNews by Yebekagh.com, the ruling stemmed from a case involving a young girl suffering from a severe form of epilepsy.
The parents of a girl, Grace Elizalde, who was 8 years old around the time of the ruling, had tried just about everything to treat her Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which triggered 400 seizures a day. At their most desperate, the family drove three hours to Laredo, Texas, to acquire Cosyntropin, a synthetic peptide that can be used to treat seizures. The medication cost more than $5,000, said Grace’s father, Raul Elizalde, who is now the president of the international CBD company HempMeds.
As reported by NBCNews.com, Elizalde eventually reached out to a Mexican lawmaker who publicly supported adopting cannabis legislation in Mexico after Washington state and Colorado legalized recreational marijuana. That lawmaker, Fernando Belaunzarán, wrote a letter to Mexico’s health secretary on behalf of the Elizalde family, seeking permission to import cannabis oil for Grace’s treatment.
Initially, the Health Ministry declined the request, but a federal judge stepped in and allowed Elizalde to import CBD.
“There was not a lot of information back then in 2015,” Elizalde said. “It was hard to find any information about cannabis, especially CBD.”
Elizalde said Grace’s doctor had been interested in research taking place around the world on CBD as a potential treatment for epilepsy and thought it was worth a try for his daughter, who is now 13. Her seizures have decreased to about 20 on a bad day, Elizalde said in the story.
However, it took three more years for Mexico to acually finalize regulations. Mexican families begun to speak up about how the prefer and use cannabis not only to treat Lennox-Gastaut syndrome but other ailments as well.
The cannabis market in Mexico was growing after citizens noticed “Cannabis could treat Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and other ailments” from Grace Elizalde’s story.
The current government, under President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, promises that the drug war is now over but legalizing Cannabis in Mexico does not seem to be a priority.
Andrew Rudman, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan research organization said despite Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador’s campaign promises, legalizing cannabis is not necessarily a top priority.
Cannabis is not legalized in Mexico but reports at Yebekagh.com shows that the cannabis market keeps growing making Mexico close to becoming the world’s largest legal cannabis market following anticipations of the Chamber of Deputies to comply with the court mandate to legalize cannabis by the end of April.