The Adept Traveler published January 16, 2023: Mexico Bans Smoking. In December Mexico adopted one of the most comprehensive anti-tobacco measures in the world. The measure was unanimously approved by Mexico’s senate and has recently taken effect. This new legislation expands on a 2008 law and effectively bans smoking in any public spaces. This includes beaches, resorts, outdoor restaurants and bars, basically all indoor and outdoor public spaces throughout the entire country. Travelers that violate the new law will face a fine between $50 dollars and $100 dollars. Smokers that refuse to cooperate with authorities could face up to 36 hours in a jail cell. If you think that’s bad the fine for a business found violating the ban can face up to $46,000 in fines.
BBC News
written by Will Grant
Saturday January 14, 2023
Mexico has brought into force one of the world's strictest anti-tobacco laws by enacting a total ban on smoking in public places.
The step, which was first approved in 2021, also includes a ban on tobacco advertising.
Several other Latin American countries have also passed legislation to create smoke-free public spaces.
However, Mexico's legislation is considered to be the most robust and wide-ranging in the Americas.
It amounts to one of the most stringent anti-smoking laws in the world. Mexico's existing 2008 law - which created smoke-free spaces in bars, restaurants and workplaces - is now extended to an outright ban in all public spaces. That includes parks, beaches, hotels, offices and restaurants.
There will also be a total ban on the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, meaning that cigarettes cannot even be on show inside shops.
Vapes and e-cigarettes are also subject to tighter new restrictions, particularly indoors.
The Pan American Health Organisation has welcomed the step and applauded the Mexican government for implementing the ban.
The organisation says that tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the world, responsible for nearly a million deaths in the Americas each year, either through direct consumption or exposure to second-hand smoke.
However, some smokers are dismayed at the draconian nature of the new law.
In essence, it means that many will only be allowed to smoke in their homes or other private residences.
Others have raised questions about the practicalities of enforcing the law.
With police corruption so rampant in Mexico, many fear that rather than issuing real fines or punishments for smoking in public, some officers will use it as a pretext for taking bribes.
Bloomberg Quicktake published June 29, 2021 MEXICO CITY: Mexico's Supreme Court Removes Ban Against Smoking Marijuana.
Mexico's Supreme Court has ordered the government to start issuing permits to grow limited amounts of marijuana after the country's Congress took too long to approve a limited legalization law.
This does not mean that marijuana is legalized, but it will mean that any Mexican who asks for a permit will be able to consume it legally if they grow it at home and under certain restrictions.
The Court's resolution leaves it in the hands of the Ministry of Health and the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks to establish the details of the permits for self-consumption.
In 2019, the Court ruled that prohibiting marijuana was unconstitutional and gave lawmakers until April 30 to pass a law.
In March, the lower house approved a marijuana legalization bill, but it bogged down in the Senate.
The ruling was considered a clear wake-up call to the Mexican Congress, which has been unable to legislate on the issue despite the high Court's demands on various occasions since 2019.
"Today is a historic day for freedoms," said the President of the Supreme Court, Arturo Zaldívar. "After a long road, this Supreme Court recognizes the right to the free development of personality for the recreational use of marijuana".
Next to the Supreme Court headquarters, members of the Mexican Cannabis Movement celebrated the Court's decision and hoped that the criminalization of those who smoke marijuana will end from now on.
Vice published July 30, 2022: Smoking Cocaine Mixed with Human Bones: Basuco.
‘Basuco’ is now considered the cheapest drug in the world, at 20 cents a hit. It’s made from the residue leftover from cocaine production, mixed with brick dust, volcanic ash, sulphuric acid, kerosene and sometimes ground-up human bones.
The high is all-consuming and shockingly addictive, and an epidemic of basuco dependency is tearing through poor communities all across South America.
For the cartels, often the cheapest and deadliest drugs are the most profitable. In this episode, we meet the shadowy figures behind this epidemic and visit the neighbourhoods it has destroyed in its wake.
High Society
The War on Drugs has been won. By drugs. They’re everywhere.
Many of them are new, and they’re all more potent.
Society is altering chemicals, and chemicals are altering society back, creating new drug scenes - some funny, some bizarre, some terrifying.
Drugs on TV usually mean criminals getting busted or addicts in recovery. But this series is about the cultures and people that have grown around the substances.
High Society will show you how drugs are shaping our world.
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