Mexico Supreme Court Allows First Cannabis Company to Operate

Mexico Supreme Court Allows First Cannabis Company to Operate

The Mexican Supreme Court has voted in favor of Xebra’s subsidiary Desart MX, SA de CV becoming the only company in Mexico that will be authorized to legally import cannabis seeds, cultivate cannabis, process cannabis, extract cannabinoids, and manufacture cannabis products. Xebra Mexico could also sell cannabis products within Mexico and for export.

“We believe our first-mover advantage in the Mexican CBD and CBG market could last 1 to 3 years,” the Xebra board stated.  Commercialization of high-THC cannabis remains prohibited in Mexico; however, Mexican Congress is in the process of debating a bill to fully legalize it.  Earlier this year, possession of small amounts of cannabis was decriminalized.

Xebra Mexico’s injunction applies specifically to the industrial cannabis sector, and explicitly to cannabis with low levels of THC (under 1%); in other words, to hemp cultivation and processing, and to the manufacture and sale of mainly CBD and CBG products, such as tinctures, oils, topicals, edibles, beverages, concentrates, distillates, emulsions, and biomass and certain uses of the cannabis flower.

“We believe Mexico has the potential to be one of the largest near-term country cannabis consumer markets in the world,” the Xebra board shares. “Mexico is also within the North American free trade zone (USMCA), giving it considerable cultivation and product manufacturing cost advantages over Canada and the United States. We are of the opinion that there is sufficient precedent with many agricultural crops and manufactured products to suggest that there is a possibility that, ultimately, the majority of North American industrial scale cannabis production activity will occur in Mexico. That makes this step even more important for our company.”