Marijuana Users Light Up In Legalization Demonstration Before Mexican Senate

La Jornada reports that dozens of marijuana users demonstrated in front of the Mexican Senate over the weekend to demand that lawmakers legalize the consumption of the plant. Convened by the Artist Marijuana Liberation Front, among other organizations, protestors smoked the plant openly on Paseo de la Reforma, a major thoroughfare in the Mexican capital, as they listened and danced to reggae music, in what they said was an act of defiance intended to demonstrate that smoking marijuana did not make them criminals.

Lawmakers in Mexico City are currently weighing the idea of making it legal to smoke pot recreationally in private clubs as well as allowing residents to cultivate up to three cannabis plants per person. The capital has long been at the forefront of progressive laws in the country, with abortion and gay marriage both legal there. In 2009, federal lawmakers moved to decriminalize marijuana in amounts up to 5 grams if used for personal consumption - those caught with that amount of the drug three times will be obliged to seek treatment, but no longer face criminal prosecution. According to the New York Times, 5 grams is equivalent to about four marijuana cigarettes. That same 2009 law rolled back criminalizing measures against other drugs, too, including cocaine (up to half a gram), heroin (50 milligrams), methamphetamine (40 milligrams) and LSD (0.015 milligrams).

The demonstration in front of the Senate was part of the music festival Marijuana Fest. Protestors told La Jornada that they spoke with authorities before the festival in order to avoid being harassed by them. One, who gave his name as Luis, told the paper, "We're not criminals. We don't harm anyone. It's our right to smoke whatever we want," as he separated the seeds from the buds and broke them onto a piece of rice paper. La Jornada wrote that the smell of the burning plant wafted down much of Paseo de la Reforma, near the heart of the Mexican capital.

Yadira Ivonne Oriel, from the group Women for Peace, said that legalizing marijuana would avoid the criminalization of its consumers and proposed that specific sites be established where it could be purchased. She added that serious studies had not been performed in Mexico on the health effects of the consumption of the drug and called for experts to do so, adding that one of the benefits of it was that it helped young people kick their addictions to other drugs.

RELATED:Uruguay Legalizes Marijuana Trade; Does The New Jose Mujica Law Mean A New Chapter In Latin America's War On Drugs?