Mexico City: Mexican lawmakers gave final and overwhelming approval Friday to a bill legalizing medical marijuana after a national debate on narcotics policy in a country mired in brutal drug violence.
The vote in the Chamber of Deputies was 371 in favor and seven against with 11 abstentions.
The bill will now go to President Enrique Pena Nieto for his signature and then publication in the official government gazette, the lower house said in a statement.
With Friday's vote, Mexico will join several US states and other nations in Latin America that allow cannabis for medical uses.
Pena Nieto proposed legalizing medical marijuana in a major policy shift in April after his government organized forums to discuss changes to the laws.
The bill fell short of demands from some lawmakers and civil groups that argue that a wider legalization of marijuana use could help the country reduce drug-related violence.
But proponents said it was a major step that will address Mexicans' need of an alternative medical treatment.
Growing marijuana for medical and scientific purposes will not be punishable.
A family in northern Mexico became a symbol of the push to legalize medical marijuana last year when the parents of a young epileptic girl won a court battle to import a cannabis-based treatment to stop her daily seizures.
The girl's father, Raul Elizalde, told AFP then that the legislation represented "great progress," but that it should make it easier for patients to acquire THC by letting them buy it without a prescription.
In a separate major case in November 2015, the Supreme Court authorized four people to grow and smoke pot for recreational purposes.
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