Mexicans get high in a marijuana garden outside the Senate
A cannabis plot planted by activists next to Mexico's Senate building has grown into a de facto smoking zone, tolerated by police as lawmakers stall on legalization legislation.
A marijuana garden planted by activists next to Mexico's Senate building in Luis Pasteur Park has grown into what organizers call the country's first non-clandestine pot plantation in a century, according to Mexico News Daily. Activists with Mexico's cannabis movement sowed the seeds in February 2020, and by summer the plants had grown as tall as 2.65 meters, drawing regular visitors who come to smoke without fear of arrest.
"The first non-clandestine pot plantation in Mexico in 100 years," is how activist Leopoldo Rivera described the garden, known as Plantón 420, per Mexico News Daily's reporting. Mexico City police have largely turned a blind eye to smokers there, the outlet reported, even though cannabis use remains formally restricted under national law.
The garden operates under its own informal rules: visitors receive badges granting them 30-minute smoking sessions, social distancing is enforced, and buying, selling or sharing joints or pipes is prohibited on-site, according to Mexico News Daily. Organizers also run workshops covering germination and growing techniques, along with product-making instruction for items like edibles and lubricants, plus lectures on medicinal uses of cannabis.
The legal backdrop
Mexico's Supreme Court had ruled that laws prohibiting cannabis use were unconstitutional and ordered lawmakers to draft legalization legislation by December 15, 2020, per Mexico News Daily. In the meantime, possession of under 5 grams is legal in Mexico, while larger amounts can still bring criminal charges — a gap the garden's organizers use to justify Plantón 420 as both a protest and an educational space while the formal law remains unwritten.
Who is behind it, and who has taken notice
Barista Marco Flores told Mexico News Daily he appreciates being able to smoke there "with freedom," without watching for police on the street, while fellow activist José Rivera described the plot as an educational resource for the public. The garden's presence next to the Senate has also drawn political attention: Senator Jesús Rodríguez brought a marijuana plant onto the Senate floor during legalization debates, and Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero said she considered recreational cannabis use justified, telling reporters she would "plant it in my garden," according to the same coverage.
What the reporting didn't resolve
The retrieved coverage does not specify whether Mexico's Congress met the court-ordered December 2020 deadline to pass legalization legislation, nor does it detail how long Plantón 420 continued operating beyond the period covered by this reporting.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Mexico News Daily. It restores a story originally published on this site in 2020; figures are as reported at the time.