Mexico's landmark cannabis bill one step closer to becoming law

FILE PHOTO: Marijuana leaves are pictured while people protest against the cannabis legalization bill approved by Mexico's Senate as a way to a market that would benefit big companies, outside Congress building in Mexico City, Mexico, November 26, 2020. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Two special committees of Mexico's Lower House of Congress late on Monday approved a draft bill to decriminalize marijuana and sent it on to the full chamber, bringing it a step closer to creating one of the world's largest markets for the drug.

The bill, backed by the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, would mark a major shift in a country bedeviled for years by violence between feuding drug cartels.