Mexico's lower house has approved a bill that is expected to legalize the recreational use of cannabis.
The bill is now expected to go to the Senate for a final vote, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's party believes will pass.
Passing this bill would make Mexico the largest regulated market for cannabis in the world. This country has waged a bloody war against powerful drug cartels, from which thousands of people have died every year, writes the BBC.
The draft law was approved in the first reading in the Senate in November of last year, but the changes were forwarded for another vote in the Lower House, and finally again in the Senate.
The law will allow people to carry up to 28 grams of cannabis and up to eight plants at home for personal use. Meanwhile, it is currently illegal for a person to carry more than five grams of cannabis.
The Mexican president is optimistic that the law will help the country keep the powerful drug cartels under control.
