A father in colonia Juárez, in the borough of Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, complained that a woman was smoking marijuana in a public space in front of children.[1] He asked her to stop using marijuana in a children’s play area where minors were present, and a video of the argument spread on social media.[1] The complainant said she started the physical aggression.[1] The complaint also said she threw a swing toward a child who was playing.[1] During the police procedure she said she had been smoking and had not known she was not allowed to smoke there.[1]
Officers of the Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana (SSC) went to the site and took her before a civic court.[1] Neighborhood reports identified her as Mexican and living abroad, although some social-media users described her as a foreigner.[1] During the administrative procedure she repeatedly refused to speak Spanish with the officers and with court staff.[2]
Mexico City’s civic-culture law treats consuming, ingesting, inhaling or aspirating narcotics, psychotropics or toxic substances in public places as an infraction against citizen security.[1] The penalties set for that category are a fine of 21 to 30 times the Unidad de Medida y Actualización, detention of 25 to 36 hours, or 12 to 18 hours of community work, and the civic authority decides which applies.[1] Designated cannabis tolerance spaces, known as puntos 4:20, do not mean marijuana may be smoked freely in any park, pavement or play area.[1]
