This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.

This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
License: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/
international.
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Latinas for marijuana! Meet the women fighting to decriminalise cannabis in Mexico
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From ‘Twerk and Smoke’ sessions on Zoom to ‘yoganja’ (yoga plus weed), feminist activists in Mexico have joined the fight to legalise marijuana.

“The fight to change drug policy in the country will be feminist or it will not be at all,” said Rebeca Soto, a 31-year-old woman with pitch-black hair, a fringe and a delicate gold nose ring. By day, Soto works with a municipal government initiative that helps substance users access government and civil society resources. By night, the Mexico City-based activist runs Feminismo & Flow, the cannabis collective she helped establish.

From Chile to Mexico, feminist collectives in Latin America have led the way in responding to the region-wide epidemic of violence against women and girls. Now, cannabis-promoting groups are making space for themselves within the movement.

This month, Mexico’s Senate, the upper house of parliament, is expected to approve the legalisation of recreational marijuana, a milestone for a country that has long been in the throes of a drug war. In March, the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, passed a bill that would allow adults to smoke marijuana and apply for a permit to grow a limited number of cannabis plants at home.

The legislation would also grant licences to small farmers to grow and sell weed. Activists such as Soto say the new law could be a game changer and increase business opportunities, especially for women.

It could also disrupt violent organised crime, which affects women in a variety of ways. ’Intimate partner violence’ has increased in Mexico over the past 20 years, but so has organised crime-related violence waged on women's bodies – as Maria Salguero, creator of the National Map of Femicides in Mexico, explains.

The trafficking of girls has risen steadily since 2015, as have femicides linked to criminal violence. Women's bodies are used to send messages to other criminal groups, targeted individuals and society at large, irrespective of women’s personal involvement in criminal activities.

The drug trade also affects women negatively. According to a report by the NGO EquisJusticia, “drug-related crimes are the fifth most common reason why indigenous people are imprisoned in Mexico” and nearly half of incarcerated women are in prison for drug crimes. Women who are in prison for the use or transportation of substances like cannabis or heroin are often single mothers, with low levels of education and minimal access to economic opportunities.

A bad rep

Soto and I met last year via Skype when a friend sent me an invite to a digital ‘Twerk and Smoke’ session hosted by Soto’s collective. We’ve spoken frequently about the intersection of feminism, cannabis and the epidemic of violence against women in Mexico.

She tells me there are many feminist collectives like hers. “Before being a marijuana user, I was a feminist and I realised that there was a connection between the two," Soto said.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/latinas-marijuana-meet-women-fighting-decriminalise-cannabis-mexico/