Mexico's Role in the Future of the Cannabis Industry

It has been eight years since we started a journey to ensure that our daughter, Graciela, could legally access a cannabis-derived product. When she was 8 years old, we were struggling with an infinite number of treatments because we had gone from traditional drugs trying to control the more than 400 seizures that she suffered daily, to a surgery where they sectioned one of the structures that join the hemispheres in our daughter's brain, and after all this, we found a product that was our last chance to improve her quality of life.

We are not the only family who had to go through this complicated and endless journey to find solutions and ensure legal access to products that will improve rare health conditions, and although the case of our daughter Grace served as a watershed to initiate a series of procedures that, in 2017 led to changes in the General Health Law to recognize the broad therapeutic and industrial uses of cannabis and its derivatives, I can assure you that to date, thousands of families continue to travel this tortuous path.

 Mexico legally recognized access to cannabis-derived products in 2017, an action that has not had many benefits for patients, since it was not until 2021 that the government issued specific regulations about using these types of products for medicinal purposes and research. This regulation is the one that is stopping legal access to products derived from cannabis for the thousands of families who, like us, look for a solution in various cannabinoids as a therapeutic option for patients with neurodegenerative diseases because it states that companies should undergo specific research procedures that only benefit the multinational pharmaceutical companies.

 As a result of the arduous journey we have gone through to allow Grace to have legal access to a product with high concentrations of CBD or cannabidiol, and intending to facilitate the path for other families, we created the Fundación Por Grace in 2016, a nonprofit organization with international impact, whose only purpose is to ensure the recognition of cannabidiol as a therapeutic alternative, and not as a last resort for treatment. It is in this commitment where we have experienced firsthand the impact of legislative delays and lack of political will to move forward with efficient regulations that allow people to legally access cannabis-derived products as a plausible solution for several neurodegenerative illnesses, regardless of the unsparing work of Mexican and international scientists to research these cannabis-derived compounds and understand their therapeutic potential.

Our commitment to allowing people access to cannabis-derived products is not related to the legal market for artisanal cannabis products that have no quality standards, much less about the black market. We are committed to showcasing the impact in people's lives that products developed with the highest quality standards have, especially those recognized globally for their therapeutic potential as the World Health Organization did in 2018 or as international markets such as Brazil and the US have done.

 These products with high concentrations of cannabidiol represent an opportunity for patients and caregivers to be at ease, since hundreds of families like ours are clear examples of the therapeutic advantages of substances derived from non-psychoactive cannabis, such as cannabidiol, or CBD. Still, these products also represent an opportunity for economic and social development if efficient and standardized regulations exist, providing legal certainty that will attract national and international investments to produce raw materials and transformed products that Mexico can export to other markets. However, as of today, those types of regulations do not exist. The lack of political will has led legislators into a debate about whether they should allow access to cannabis for recreational purposes or not, leaving patients on hold for their legal right to access cannabis-derived products for therapeutic purposes because there is no certainty for companies to invest in the Mexican market, and on the contrary, the General Law on Sanitary Control for the Production, Research, and Medicinal Use of Cannabis and its Derivatives privileges highly complicated procedures, which makes it virtually impossible for Mexican investors and even companies from other countries that have been legally established to register products, due to their botanical nature. 

However, it is notable that there are some companies that, despite thee legal loopholes, are looking for a way to enter the Mexican market with pharmaceutical-grade products and seeking to have a distribution that allows them to reach those thousands of families who are looking for cannabis derivatives, which is a relief regarding the health of  patients.

 But it is not only about talking about access to products, since Mexico has become a spearhead for generating research protocols that provide scientific evidence for cannabis derivatives and that help health professionals understand how they act in the body.

However, the challenge remains to ensure that scientists, health professionals, and families know the advantages of these therapeutic solutions to improve patients’ lives and promote information about legal access to products with the highest standards regarding quality, safety, and effectiveness, but also to allow them to understand which are the most appropriate products to improve their health, regardless of political and economic issues.

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