Judge in Mexico gives green light to recreational cocaine use

A Mexican judge has granted two people the right to use cocaine recreationally in the first ruling of its kind.

Campaigners have hailed it as a ‘historic step,’ which comes as the government is considering legalising recreational marijuana use.

The ruling allows the two unnamed people to ‘possess, transport and use cocaine’ but not to sell it.

The court order was made in May but is likely to be subject to an appeal by the country’s health authority.

Campaign group MUCD wants to end the country’s ‘war on drugs,’ which they say is causing record numbers of drug-related murders.

They said: ‘This case represents another step in the fight to construct alternative drug policies that allow (Mexico) to redirect its security efforts and better address public health.

‘We have spent years working for a more secure, just and peaceful Mexico.

‘This case is about insisting on the need to stop criminalising drug users and designing better public policies that explore all the available options.’

Mexico has been hit by a wave of violence since the government deployed the army to fight the country’s powerful drug cartels in 2006.

Since then, more than 250,000 people have been murdered, including a record 33,755 last year.

The country is now slowly moving away from its strict prohibitionist drug policies.

The Supreme Court has authorised recreational marijuana use in individual cases, including one brought by the Hollywood actor Diego Luna.

Leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has also repeatedly said the country should evaluate decriminalising drugs.

His party, Morena, has introduced a bill in Congress to legalise recreational marijuana use.

The court in Mexico City ordered the national health regulator, Cofepris, to allow the two people use cocaine in a personal capacity.

The decision, however, must be reviewed by a higher court before it is enforced.

Cofepris has said it will move to block the court order arguing that a judge has no legal power to make it.

The case will now be reviewed by a panel of judges and will only come into effect if they side with the original decision.

It only applies to the two people who brought the case and will not be rolled out to other cocaine users.

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