La prohibición nacional del cannabis en México: revisión histórica de la relación entre leyes y ciencia

Abstract

This article documents and analyzes the drug laws that enabled and created the space for the implementation of a prohibitionist paradigm in Mexico. An increasingly punitive government posture was adopted during the period from 1917 to 1947, i.e., between the promulgation of the Constitution and the incorporation of a series of reforms into the Federal Penal Code. The study and analysis of these laws required the documentation of scientific discussions surrounding the legislative process: discussions which sometimes supported and, at others, were critical of the government's position. Based on this review of the historical documentation—and within the framework of the initial domestic and international prohibitions of cannabis—medical and legal opinions are articulated, and the areas in which science and the law either coincided or entered into conflict are explored.