Voices of Mexico no. 120

Our Voice

Is it appropriate to make comparisons between today and a time so long past as the Middle Ages? Today, people are no longer burned at the stake for heresy, but, they are vilified, among other things, to satisfy political, economic, security, and ideological interests that promote banning some psychoactive substances, among them, cannabis. Today’s doctors and scientists, who bring to light this plant’s benefits for medicinal as well as —and why not?— recreational use, could be the equivalents of the witches of old. In the first decades of this century, we are living between prohibitionism and freedom, as one of the authors in this issue writes.

Graciela Martínez-Zalce
Director of the Center for Research on North America