Over eight-thousand people attended the fourth edition of one of Mexico’s most significant gatherings of the cannabis community, Expoweed, this weekend. Throughout three days of political panels, cultivation presentations, dab rig shopping, industry networking, and hip-hop freestyle battles, a picture emerged of a country that, after decades of cannabis activism, could be on the brink of something huge.
The crowd was relatively diverse, for a cannabis event. Women made up a considerable percentage and all age groups were represented. Attendee numbers seemed to confirm that the country’s citizens are ready for change.
“All of you here today are proof that there is a light in the tunnel,” said Senator Patricia Mercado, who has played a pivotal role in pushing the Department of Health to refine the country’s medical marijuana system.
This year’s Expoweed could have been the last to take place in a Mexico without legal recreational marijuana. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government has held a series of public discussions on cannabis policy over the past month. Lawmakers appear to be scrambling to meet the Supreme Court’s expectation that the legislature regulate adult-use marijuana. The court’s judges pronounced cannabis prohibition unconstitutional last year.
Senators Jesus Rodríguez and Mercado, who are among the group of majority women Mexican politicians who have become leaders on the issue of legalization, appeared in Expoweed’s Saturday panel on the regulation process.
The two senators focused on encouraging the cannabis community to weigh in on the Senate’s fact-finding process when it comes to marijuana regulation. “Don’t let us alone!” said Rodriguez, who was a performance artist before becoming an elected official last year in President López Obrador’s Morena party. The flamboyant senator also debuted an online platform