Mexico Congress receives initiative to legalize opium poppy

The Guerrero State Congress sent a reform initiative to the parliamentary committee with the purpose of legalizing the growth and production of opium poppy for scientific and medicinal purposes.

The proposition to legalize the poppy has gathered momentum due to an increase in violence in the state of Guerrero. The massacre of Iguala, in which 43 students from the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa disappeared is an example of this, since it is thought that the students fell victims to an organized crime group that controls the poppy market, from which substances such as morphine are obtained.

Legislators from Guerrero have argued that the reform’s approval by the Congress of Union is feasible in the framework of international legislation. It would set the ground for the legal growth and production of raw materials which, in turn, could lead to the incursion of local farmers into the pharmaceutical market space through the production of the Papaver Somniferum plant, as well as its derivatives.

This initiative proposes additions and modifications to the General Health Law, the Federal Criminal Code, and the National Code of Criminal Procedure.

Source: El Universal