Mexico City, Apr 11 (EFE).- The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, revealed this Tuesday that his government is investigating the family of former President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) for receiving permits to market marijuana-derived products days before the end of the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).
“Five days before the end of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, the Cofepris (Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks) gave 63 permits to market products derived from cannabis, marijuana, the majority for companies linked to the Fox family” , said the president in his daily conference.
López Obrador said that due to this an investigation is already being carried out, since “things have been discovered” in the Cofepris facilities.
“There were basements there in Cofepris and they are discovering things, they have to prove of course that they gave the permits,” he said.
He also pointed out that for now no criminal complaint has been made because he barely received the information on Monday, but he pointed out that “of course a complaint will be filed, of course.”
Minutes later, former President Fox, who has openly promoted the decriminalization of marijuana for recreational use, denied that he had been favored with these permits.
“Lopez, one more lie. I don’t have any cannabis license! You are a Pinocchio, long nose and liar, ”commented the former president on his official Twitter account.
Fox and other businessmen have claimed that Mexico has enormous potential to create the world’s largest legal marijuana market, but López Obrador has questioned the legalization of cannabis, suggesting this week that it may be the door “to other drugs.”
In 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico approved a historic ruling that declared the ban on the recreational use of marijuana in the country unconstitutional, but recreational cannabis would still have some limitations because Congress and the López Obrador government have refused to regulate it. .
While Congress approved since 2017, during Peña Nieto’s six-year term, the use of marijuana for health purposes, a regulation that depends on Cofepris.
