Marijuana March in Mexico City (Photos)

Hundreds of people marched through downtown Mexico City yesterday for marijuana legalization. There were similar marches all over the world this weekend, an annual global action often called the “Million Marijuana March.”

While smaller than last year’s, it was a festive and positive demonstration, and got some coverage from local TV, as well as a write-up in El Universal, Mexico’s biggest daily, and other papers. I counted about 500 people, mostly typical young people from the city.

The Mexican Association for Cannabis Studies (AMECA), Vivecondrogas.com and Multiforo Alicia – a punk/alternative rock club involved with a lot of local activism – organized the march. The logo they came up with for this year’s march is great – a pot-leaf Mexican wrestling mask. It is a play on an instantly recognizable cultural symbol here, which has appeal across a lot of different popular subcultures. It’s a very attention-grabbing image, and I one think could be used very effectively in the future.

Media coverage of marches in other Latin American cities has been very scarce. According to organizers in Buenos Aires, where the movement for drug decriminalization and harm reduction is much more developed than here in Mexico, around 10,000 people turned out to march “against the intolerance” of the drug war. This despite the Buenos Aires city government revoking the permit for this year’s march at the last minute and telling organizers to cancel the march. Last year, more than 12,000 were reported turning out for a huge concert and demonstration in that city.

You can read my report on last years marches and some background on the Mexican legalization movement on Narco News. If anyone has information about marches in other cities this weekend (there were hundreds announced… I read somewhere about a large turnout in San Francisco) please post comments, here.

Click on these pictures for a full-sized version.