Having included a ban on the use of vaping devices in the Political Constitution might seem like a bad joke. But it was a whimsical idea by López Obrador, which now the majority of Morena took charge of making a reality. As if there were not dozens of more serious and worrying issues that congressmen should worry about. Furthermore, it is a major international ridicule; once again we are the laughingstock in the world.
Morena legislators have lost all sense of what the Constitution means. This fundamentally seeks to establish the fundamental principles, structure and functioning of a State. Likewise, it must guarantee the rights and duties of its citizens. In essence, the Magna Carta is the most important social contract of a country, where the fundamental rules for the development of political, social and legal life are reflected. Vaping certainly doesn’t fit those goals. What more occurrences will follow to be included in the Constitution? The imagination has no limits, even if the Magna Carta is distorted and trampled on.
Many have already advanced it, that what these types of prohibitions do is transfer an activity that was legal to a black market. Organized crime is happy, because they have just opened one more business opportunity. Lawmakers endorsed this absurdity, without even considering the solid evidence that tobacco cigarettes are more harmful to health than a vape pen. Acting irresponsibly, legislators did not rely on any study or medical reference to even debate the proposal.
This constitutes an excess to regulate social life and represents an intrusion into private life. Prohibitions of this type are contrary to people’s freedom of decision, which should be a fundamental principle guaranteed by the Constitution.
There is a more worrying background. If we consider that governance in a broad concept encompasses the way in which power is exercised and decisions are made and implemented, today in Mexico we have two paths that correspond to the two powers (Executive and Legislative), where each one goes its own way. . The president trying to overcome her weakness by leaning on García Harfuch, trying to consolidate the fight against organized crime and timidly trying to discern what Trump will do to defend himself. On the other hand, Congress, dominated by López Obrador through the Monreal-Adán Augusto-Noroña trio who, based on what AMLO asks, pass a constitutional change that instead of being aligned with the security objectives outlined by the Executive, They give a juicy business to organized crime. That is, one power pulls towards the president and another towards AMLO. Along the way they inflict defeats on the president such as the ratification of Rosario Piedra.
This two-track governance is not a stable equilibrium. As we approach the ratification of the mandate in 2027, there may be a collision of factions, and Morena is going to cannibalize itself. Is the opposition ready to capitalize on that imminent Morena clash?
