Cannabis regulation in Mexico and its relation to labor law

Abstract

Purpose: To identify, document and analyze the points at which Federal Law for the Regulation of Cannabis and Federal Labor Law in Mexico come together and intersect.

Methodological design: The qualitative exploratory method is used. First, an historical analysis is carried out on documentary sources (specifically laws and rulings issued by the Supreme Court); second, scientific evidence is analyzed and a regulatory case, analogous to that of Mexico (i.e., Uruguay), is described; and third, based on the aforementioned, we aim to design a public policy that anticipates potentially problematic areas in the relationship between labor law and the regulation of cannabis in Mexico.

Results: The new legal status of cannabis in Mexico gives rise to the existence of a legislative and jurisdictional vacuum relating to the need to prohibit or permit the use of this plant in the workplace. This deficiency should be attended in order to anticipate the technical complexities involved in the detection of cannabis intoxication—whether problematic or not—within the workplace.

Research limitations: The literature on the relationship between the use of marijuana and the workplace in Mexico is nonexistent. The field for research is wide and requires exploratory methodologies. Similarly, jurisdictional criteria are scant and there is a significant hermeneutical space.

Findings: The questions relating to the relationship between labor law and cannabis regulation in Mexico present aspects that allow one to foresee future legal tensions, thus requiring academic and scientific efforts to deal with a sensitive area in terms of the design and implementation of public policy. In the case of the regulation of cannabis in Mexico, the law is based on the protection of individual rights (insofar as consumer rights are concerned) but with potential dangers (for the rights of third parties and for social order).