MEXICO’S READY TO LEGALIZE REC, FOR REAL THIS TIME

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After years of stop and start, Mexico appears ready to legalize REC by mid-December. But significant questions remain about what the law will look like.
Washington Post

• Some advocates believe the bill is too friendly to wealthy corporations, while ignoring small businesses, family-owned farms and the realities of the country’s ongoing struggles with drug cartels and poverty.
• “The truth is we’re just a few weeks away from the vote and we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Julio Salazar, a senior lawyer and legalization advocate with the nonprofit group Mexico United Against Crime. “I’m not sure if the initiative being pushed by Congress actually makes things better. It makes a cannabis market for the rich and continues to use criminal law to perpetuate a drug war that has damaged the poorest people with the least opportunities.”
• There’s a cannabis “protest garden” in the shadow of the country’s Senate.

On the other side of the world, Israel also sees some traction with REC legalization though the legislative process is likely to last well into next year.
Jerusalem Post