California Cannabis has Appeal in Mexico

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]C[/dropcap]alifornia cannabis has found a new consumer base in Mexico, as cannabis culture and advocacy from California is making its way south of the border. Cannabis activists are hoping that recent legalization will help shift Mexico’s politics.

As more U.S. states legalize cannabis, the flow of cannabis from Mexico moving north has begun to slow and is now even reversing as more middle-class Mexican citizens and American citizens living in Tijuana are crossing the border to sample some of the famous California cannabis. Binational cannabis advocates are hosting events in Tijuana about the medical benefits of cannabis, hoping to increase support for policy changes on the plant.

Medical cannabis is legal in Mexico and while recreational cannabis is still illegal, support for full legalization is growing. Recent polls have found that Mexico is slowly tilting in favor of legalization, with one-third of citizens showing support in 2016, up seven percent from 2008.

Poway-based Medical Marijuana Inc. is the only company Mexicans can get permits to legally import cannabidiol or CBD products with a doctor’s prescription. HempMeds Mexico, the company’s subsidiary, was launched in 2016 to lobby for broader medical cannabis regulations in the country.

Jaime Andrés Vinasco Barco, a PhD student at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana who has been studying the cross-border cannabis phenomenon, explains that the rise of cannabis exported from the U.S. to Mexico is a twist on the traditional idea of bringing cannabis across the border. Vinasco also said there’s a specific type of consumer from Tijuana that seeks California cannabis.

“They aren’t just sick,” he said. “They aren’t criminals. They aren’t the marginalized consumers that we are accustomed to thinking about when we talk about the consumers of cannabis in Mexico.”