Mexico City - Mexico will legalize sales of marijuana-based medicines, foods, drinks, cosmetics and other products early next year, its health regulator said last week, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, the law still bans the sale of the marijuana plant itself and only allows for pot-based medicines and goods.

Mexico passed its medical marijuana regulations in June 2017, following a 2015 Mexican Supreme Court ruling that allowed four people to grow and use their own medicinal marijuana, and then a directive this summer from President Enrique Peña Nieto ordering COFEPRIS to develop a framework for medical marijuana regulations.

All marijuana products would initially be imported from nations willing to ship the product over national borders, as Mexico currently has no legal framework for the cultivation, transport, or sale of marijuana.

Arturo Tornel, a spokesman for Mexico's Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios (Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks, or COFEPRIS) "expects distributors and retailers to import the items, with some companies eventually producing items in Mexico using marijuana grown abroad," Reuters reported.