A bill to legalize recreational cannabis has been approved by lawmakers in Mexico.
As per the New York Times, this marks a huge milestone for the country, which is in the throes of a drug war and could result in Mexico becoming the largest cannabis market in the world.
The bill was approved on Wednesday (March 10) in general terms before individual lawmakers moved onto a lengthy discussion of possible revisions to the bill.
The measure is expected to sail through the Senate once it is in its final form before it will be sent to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has previously expressed his support for the legalization of cannabis.
According to the measure, people will be allowed to smoke cannabis and grow a small number of plants at home.
The bill would also grant licenses to commercial growers to cultivate and sell the plant.
"Today we are in a historic moment," Simey Olvera, a lawmaker with the governing Morena party, said. "With this, the false belief that cannabis is part of Mexico’s serious public health problems is left behind."
If the bill is successfully enacted, it would add further pressure to the US to legalize cannabis, making Mexico the latest country in the Americas to legalize the recreational use of the crop.
This comes after Democrats in the Senate promised to scrap federal prohibition of the drug this year.
"The War on Drugs has been a war on people - particularly people of color," a statement issued by Schumer, of New York, and Sens. Cory Booker, of New Jersey, and Ron Wyden, of Oregon, said.
"Ending the federal marijuana prohibition is necessary to right the wrongs of this failed war and end decades of harm inflicted on communities of color across the country," they said.
John Walsh, the director of drug policy for the Washington Office on Latin America, a U.S. advocacy group, said of Mexico's recently-passed bill: "Mexico, given its size and its worldwide reputation for being damaged by the drug war, to take this step is enormously significant.
"North America is heading toward legalization."