The Supreme Court of Mexico on Wednesday made a ruling that allows a particular group of activists to grow and smoke marijuana legally.
Four out of five justices voted in favor of the plaintiffs, but the decision only applies to the four activists from the cannabis club Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Personal Use (SMART.)
SMART's lawyer, Fabian Aguinaco, said that despite the limitations, this decision has opened new possibilities regarding Mexico's drugs laws.
"As a country, we are taking a first step, a step that recognizes this important human right, which is dignity and liberty," Aguinaco said, according to Time. "This is like when you make a hole in a well. All the water pours out. But we need to construct public policies to regulate [drug use] and also satisfy people's liberty."
The plaintiffs are the only ones allowed to consume the plant, but this could hasten the approval of legislation that will allow medicinal or even recreational use of marijuana.
"Absolute prohibition is excessive and doesn't protect the right to health," Justice Olga Sánchez Cordero said, according to the Washington Post.
"No one has said at all that marijuana is harmless. It is a drug and, as such, it causes damage," Justice Arturo Zaldivar wrote for the majority, according to the New York Daily News. "What is being resolved here is that total prohibition is a disproportionate measure."
Mexico's Healthy Secretary Mercedes Juan has spoken about the issue as well.
"We respect the court's ruling, although we have different viewpoints," she said. "We have to see what limits will be."
In 2013, an advocacy group's case of growing marijuana for recreational purposes was disapproved. The court voted 4-1 in that case because it was deemed that consuming marijuana is unconstitutional, according to Reuters.
