The Mexico Cannabis Industry Is Not What You Think It Is

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Growing up 7 miles from the US - Mexico border in south San Diego, I heard more stories about cartel violence than your average American.

There were widespread rumors (and considerable substantiation to back them) that cartel executives and their families lived in the neighborhood that I went to high school in - the Eastlake area of Chula Vista is sometimes jokingly referred to as “The nicest neighborhood in Tijuana”.

I have personally known multiple people throughout my life who have been involved in the smuggling or reselling of large quantities of cannabis and other substances coming from south of the border - and in some cases, individuals who were caught and sentenced to federal prison in the U.S. for doing so. Disclaimer: I know a ton of people, and was not particularly close with any of the individuals or circumstances referenced above.

Stories of abandoned cars full of drugs and shootouts with Border Patrol or undercover DEA agents in strip mall parking lots and rural east county communities colored my perception of the drug trade that spilled across the U.S. - Mexico border; drugs come north, guns and cash flow south.

Our local newspaper even had a live tracker mapping out the countless ventilated, sophisticated tunnels running from warehouses on the Tijuana side of the border to warehouses in the Otay Mesa neighborhood of southern San Diego - which carted load after load of drugs and cash back and forth across the border.

As a high schooler, I started getting more comfortable crossing the border south with groups of friends - though we’d typically smoke weed in our familiar enclaves on the U.S. side, then cross the border into Tecate or Tijuana for tacos or to fulfill some unbridled sense fo adventure. I recall once smoking a blunt during the middle of a school day, driving 30 minutes east and crossing the international border to Tecate for tacos, and then returning to school for our last period of the day as though we were just out for a spin around the neighborhood. Over the next 15 years, I became increasingly familiar with the rules and regulations for being a cannabis enthusiast guest in Mexico - a trade and country which still evokes images of beheadings and horrific torture scenes in the imaginations of many on the U.S. side of the border.

In college, I started venturing further south to visit less familiar destinations in Mexico - summer of 2010 between Junior and Senior year saw me fly down to Oaxaca City and launch on a road trip from Oaxaca, through Chiapas, and eventually down to Costa Rica via much of the Pan American Highway. My two friends and I picked up weed at every stop of the way, including in some pretty sketchy situations (I’m looking at you, Libertdad, El Salvador) - The more time I spent in beach communities like Zipolite and Puerto Arista, the more comfortable I became with the reality of the cannabis community in Mexico. What I found was a robust and diverse community of laid back people who appreciated the plant - much in the same way that the ‘lazy stoner’ stereotype in the United States is an egregious misrepresentation of the broad array of individuals and communities who regularly consume cannabis here.

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to attend ‘Humo en la Montaña’ - the first Cannabis Cup in Chiapas Mexico. The event was organized by my good friends who collectively compose a Chiapanecan cannabis and cultivation brand called Simio Autocultivo.

The purpose of this cup was to bring together cannabis cultivators from Chiapas, Mexico to test the quality, cleanliness, and potency of their strains - and to build and celebrate the cannabis community in this state.

After having been incidentally exposed to a lot of the goings on in the legal cannabis industry in the United States thanks to my position in the emergent psychedelic ecosystem (…and budding industry, which features many of the same players from the cannabis space) - my experience at Humo en la Montaña was extraordinarily refreshing.

The event maintained a distinctly independent and community-minded presence without compromising on the quality or integrity of the cannabis brands and start ups in attendance. Chiapas’ first cannabis lawyer had a booth, and showed me his state-issued license permitting him to cultivate, transport, and possess cannabis - which came in handy as he ran into some friction with local law enforcement while passing through one of the numerous checkpoints that populate the road networks in Mexico.

There was a farmers market set up where different cannabis entrepreneurs sold and traded their proprietary strains with names like ‘Pan de Muerto’ (Bread of Death) and ‘Especial Uno’ (Special One) - as well as cannabis infused gourmet chocolates, French cheese, and craft beer - and cannabis plants themselves.

The event featured a live DJ spinning chilled out electronic music for the crowd of cannabis enthusiasts as they continually rolled joints, networked, and ate ‘botanas’ (snacks) like tostilocos and esquites.

The premiere Humo en la Montaña event took place at a stunning hilltop artist’s mansion overlooking the town of San Cristobal de Las Casas, a Pueblo Magico about 100 miles North of the Guatemala - Mexico border.

Cannabis has a long and rich history in this part of the world, and is typically not accorded the same level of stigma that continues to surround the plant in communities North of the U.S. - Mexico border. The cannabis plant is known and revered to the indigenous communities here, and is often used for purposes that haver nothing to do with ‘getting high’. For example, earlier this year I was gifted a tincture infused with cannabis buds, and was instructed to use it topically on areas of my body that may be feeling sore.

There is a local ‘witchcraft’ shop in San Cristobal that sells huge cigars stuffed with cannabis and buds the size of one’s forearm in addition to life size statues of Santa Muerte and penis candles to promote vitality and virility.

When I left the flagship Humo en la Montaña event, I was carrying seven cannabis plants of various strains and potencies. I walked through the barrio with these plants, and people hardly batted an eyelash - except for one passing car that stopped to gawk and audibly gasp at the haul I was toting around their unassuming block - the light in their eyes and the expression of enchantment let me know that they were very familiar with the magical qualities of the plant in my possession.

I hopped in a taxi at the bottom fo the hill, and he made sure to complement the beauty of the plants that I brought into his cab -

The ‘cannabis industry’ in Chiapas is extremely new and undeveloped, but the cannabis culture here is on par with anywhere in the world in my opinion. Perhaps it’s the spirit of independence and community that saturates this state thanks to the efforts of the Zapatista indigenous autonomy movement - or the fact that the young entrepreneurs captaining this ship are all more interested in community value than individual profit - but the emerging legal cannabis industry in Chiapas is a joy to witness, and a proof of concept for a truly people-centered regulated cannabis environment in the 21st Century.

As a lifelong resident of the San Diego - Mexico border community, I feel that it’s my job to help displace errant stereotypes around cannabis culture and trade in Mexico - this account is by no means an exhaustive or singular treatise on the state of the Mesoamerican cannabis trade and all it’s complexities and nuances; but it is an honest depiction of my collective experience of over 15 years of frequent travel and cannabis consumption on both sides of the border.

It’s an honor to have attended the first cannabis cup in Chiapas, Mexico, and to spread the good news that there is something extraordinarily special taking shape here.