MEXICO: Mexico's Supreme Court opened the door to the recreational use of marijuana on Wednesday, giving a group of activists permission to grow and smoke their own pot in a historic ruling.
The justices voted 4-1 in favor of the bid by the four members of the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Personal Use, whose Spanish acronym spells "SMART".
Justice Arturo Zaldivar, who backed the group's effort, said the country's marijuana prohibition is an "extreme" and "disproportionate" measure.
The judge who voted against, Jorge Mario Pardo, argued that the ruling could not work because it does not address the ban against getting the seeds to cultivate marijuana.
The SMART group is comprised of two lawyers, an accountant and a social activist who say that their goal is to force Mexico's Congress to open a debate about legalizing marijuana.
The group says that legalizing pot would strip drug cartels of a major source of revenue and therefore help to reduce the runaway violence that has plagued the country for a decade.