As Mexico nears marijuana revolution, medicinal patients still struggle with access

Four-year-old Camila Soto has big, bouncy brown curls and an unwavering fascination with her older sister's colored pencils.

Unable to walk or sit on her own, she has struggled with epilepsy and cerebral palsy since birth. Her mother, Crisla Soto, 38, began treating Camila's frequent seizures with cannabidiol, or CBD, when Camila was 11 months old.

"Every medicine that I give to my daughter, I do it with a lot of faith and with a lot of love," Soto said.

But to get CBD — a naturally occurring compound found in the resinous flower of the cannabis plant — Soto says she has to go underground to the black market, risking arrest every time.

Medicinal marijuana is technically legal in Baja California and across Mexico. It was legalized at a federal level in 2017. But the legal framework and practical guidance for local jurisdictions that would allow patients to actually possess it were never finalized by the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the Secretary of Health. And using medical marijuana remains socially taboo.

Now Mexico is poised to become the third country in the world to federally legalize recreational use of marijuana. But some legalization advocates say because of the way the law is written, similar problems could limit the ability of individuals to actually obtain and use a practical amount without risk of arrest.

The Mexican criminal code treats marijuana and CBD exactly the same, attorneys said. Unlike THC, another active compound in cannabis, CBD does not cause the user to feel "stoned" or intoxicated.

Right now, having even very small amounts of CBD — more than five grams — for any type of use can land you in Mexican jail, according to lawyers and advocates.

"That's the big problem," said Luis Armendáriz, a Chihuahua-based attorney and the head of the Global Practice Group at the Hoban Law Firm, which is based in Colorado. It represents companies interested in legally producing and selling CBD in Mexico for patients like Camila. His firm is also helping interested companies register trademarks in Mexico and find local partners to produce marijuana for recreational use.

"It is legal, but we have not had any secondary rules which will tell you what are the rules of the game, such as how will the COPREFIS" — the Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios, the Mexican equivalent of the FDA — "issue the permits or licenses or how can you get access to the medicine," he said.

"Probably one of the most frequently asked questions that I have gotten over the last two years is: 'Can I sell or buy CBD in Mexico?'" Armendáriz said. "And the answer is no. It's illegal. Customs in Tijuana and in other places are seizing CBD bottles. It's completely illegal."

The new law is making its way through the Mexican Senate; after approved by a Senate committee, the bill will go to the lower house for a vote, and then must be signed into law by president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It would continue to criminalize possession of relatively small amounts of marijuana while favoring giant organizations that produce it on a massive scale, according to Victor Gutiérrez, the director of litigation for Mexico United Against Crime and other advocates.

According to Armendáriz, the latest draft version of the bill raised the amount of personal cannabis a person can legally have on them from five grams to 28 grams, or about five teaspoons. Advocates say it still doesn't go far enough.

"The big problem we have in Mexico is that so many people are incarcerated for simple possession. This should be eliminated completely within this new law," said Gutiérrez.

At the federal level, 41 percent of prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes were arrested with illicit substances that have a value of less than $25, according to data from the Drug Policy Program of the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, CIDE, a research and higher education center specialized in social sciences. The data, from 2016, is the latest available.

Gutiérrez said the current law needs to be revised to allow for the possession of greater amounts of marijuana to avoid incarcerating people just for personal use.

"Nobody is taken to jail for having 10 bottles of wine at home. You are not taken to jail for having 10 packs of tobacco cigarettes in your house," said Gutiérrez.

"Our laws, they just treat cannabis as cannabis and that's another problem we're trying to bring to the legislators' attention," said Armendáriz. "There's no distinction between hemp, CBD or marijuana."

Just across the border in San Diego, CBD is sold in doctors' offices and from the shelves of stores like Sprouts and Trader Joes. But in Playas de Rosarito, where Soto and Camila live, possessing more than five grams of CBD can lead to arrest.

Federal lawmakers have until Dec. 15 to pass cannabis legislation under orders from the Supreme Court, which two years ago struck down a marijuana ban as unconstitutional. They also have until the last week of December to come up with those secondary regulations for changes made to the federal health code in 2017 for the medicinal use of marijuana, according to Armendáriz and Gutiérrez.

Meanwhile, Baja California Gov. Jaime Bonilla on Nov. 5 asked followers of his daily report live-streamed on Facebook whether or not they would support a state-wide referendum on medical marijuana. In the informal poll, 77 percent of his followers responded they would support a referendum asking the public whether or not to approve the medicinal use of marijuana in Baja California.

"It started to come up during the pandemic as not a cure but as a potential treatment to help reduce inflammation for some of the symptoms of the coronavirus," said Bonilla. "What I want people to know is that we are considering it in Baja California."

Medical marijuana advocates guffawed at Bonilla asking the public about the right to use an already legal substance.

"What that tells you is the level of lack of understanding by our politicians. Medical use is already legal at a federal level for three years," said Armendáriz.

But Soto said the referendum gives her hope that medicinal use is finally being talked about in open forums and by politicians.

CBD has become a integral part of Camila's treatments. Soto also has biweekly physical therapy appointments with Camila and frequent visits with neurologists and therapists.

"Every single day, we have some type of therapy or appointment," she said.

Many parents in the United States swear by the exact same strain of cannabidiol that Baja California doctors have prescribed for Camila's epilepsy. Soto said CBD reduces her daughter's frequent seizures and helps Camila move her left arm, which had remained pinned to the side of her body since birth.

"In reality, the time is arriving" for society to accept the medical benefits of marijuana, said Soto. "I feel desperate sometimes for having to hide this magical benefits of this medicine. I feel that many mothers don't use it because they are afraid."

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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