Six weeks ago, Mexico came out with regulations for cultivating, processing, selling, and importing/exporting medical cannabis, making the country the largest in the world (by population) to have a fully legalized medical cannabis supply chain.

We have written several blog posts about Mexico’s new cannabis regulations and we put on a webinar for stakeholders that drew nearly 1,000 registrants and generated so many questions that we feel compelled to do a follow-up online Q&A webinar on March 4th to deliver even more answers about the current cannabis scene in Mexico.

If you missed the first webinar, you can watch it here, and if you’re interested in the Q&A webinar, be sure to register here. Make sure you also submit any and all of your Mexico cannabis/hemp/CBD questions when you register.

In the meantime, cannabis businesses interested in Mexico need to start preparing now so that they’re well-positioned in Mexico’s future cannabis economy.

Mexico’s passage of its medical cannabis regulations started its phased implementation of permitted medical cannabis business activities, and it is expected that medical cannabis licensing will be generally available on May 23, 2021. If you are serious about securing a Mexico medical cannabis license, the first thing you must do is form the appropriate Mexican business entity to own your license. You also must decide on the particular license you want and start preparing the appropriate documentation for that license. It will also behoove you to familiarize yourself with Mexico cannabis real estate requirements and Mexico’s tough employment laws.

 We also received many questions about when Mexico will legalize recreational cannabis, and whether there’s an immediate benefit to securing a medical cannabis license first in order to more easily get a recreational license in the future. No one knows yet.

2021 is an election year in Mexico and we believe that politics will lead to something big happening on Mexico’s legalization front before the year ends. And if Mexico legalizes adult-use cannabis this year, it is widely expected that the supporting regulations will be split cannabis into two tracks: one for products with less than one percent THC and one for products with greater than one percent THC. We expect the lower THC content product track to take around six months to implement and the higher THC content track will require up to 18 months. to implement.

These are exciting times! Please do join us if you can for the Q&A webinar this Thursday, March 4th!

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