Debate on marijuana decriminalization to start in January: Osorio

The national debate on marijuana decriminalization will be held in five regions of the country, Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said.

Osorio said that the forums are a response to the ruling of Mexico's Supreme Court that upheld the right of four people to use marijuana with recreational purposes. He added that it “will be a clear, direct and open deliberation.”

The debate will start in Mexico City and it will also be held in other states: two in the north, one in the west and the last one in the southeast of the country. The agenda will include security and justice; ethics and rights; health, and economic and regulatory issues, Roberto Campa, Human Rights Undersecretary of Mexico's Ministry of Interior and organizer of the debates, explained.

Specialists in safety and health will participate in the debate, as well as society, that will be able to submit proposals online.

"We will create websites to know the general public's point of view," Campa added.

The debate will help Mexico define its position before participating in the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem in April 2016.