A judge in Mexico has ruled in favour of two people who had requested the right to use cocaine recreationally, marking the "first ruling of its kind", according to the NGO Mexico United Against Crime (MUCD).
In line with the court's ruling, the two claimants would be allowed to use cocaine but not sell it.
MUCD said that the court had ordered the country's health watchdog Cofepris to authorise the claimants' use of cocaine. Cofepris, for its part, said that issuing such an authorisation would be outside its legal purview. The court's ruling on recreational use of cocaine will take effect only if approved by a tribunal court.
Mexico has been engulfed by violence for over a decade, with thousands of drug-related killings reported in the country every year. According to the US Council on Foreign Relations, the number of drug-related homicides in Mexico rose to 33,341 in 2019, a 15 percent increase from the previous year. For comparison's sake, approximately 5,000 victims of intentional homicide were recorded by the police in the European Union (EU) in 2015, according to Eurostat.