All drugs including cocaine, heroin and crystal meth will be legal in Mexico within 10 years, said the country’s former president Vicente Fox, after a court ruling that he said makes the legalisation of marijuana inevitable.

“I think marijuana [legalisation] is a first step,” Fox told Reuters on Tuesday. “It’s now irreversible.”

Fox was president between 2000 and 2006 and became an advocate of legalising drugs after leaving office.

Earlier this month, the supreme court approved growing marijuana for recreational use. The landmark decision blasts open the door for an eventual legalisation in Mexico, where warring gangs have waged a decade of drug violence.

When it comes to marijuana legalization, the United States is stuck between two immovable forces. Canada has recently elected a prime minister who favors the immediate legalization of marijuana. Additionally, Mexico’s Supreme Court has recently ruled that Mexican citizens can grow, possess and smoke marijuana for personal and recreational use.

While the Mexican Supreme Court has legalised growing and consuming marijuana for a single case, many feel that this is the first step towards a nationwide legalisation. But what does this mean for the country?

MEXICO CITY – Since 2013 four plaintiffs from the advocacy group Mexican Society for Tolerant Consumption (SMART) have been fighting the case after they were denied permission by Mexican health authorities to grow marijuana for personal use. The court ruled in a four to one decision that the prohibition of marijuana for personal use violated the four plaintiffs’ “right to free development of personality” and, as as a result, was unconstitutional.

A historic ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court regarding marijuana use could act as precedent to spur an about-face in Mexico’s drug policy.

On November 4th, Mexico’s Supreme Court voted to declare unconstitutional the prohibition of growing marijuana for consumption. However, the ruling applies only to four plaintiffs involved in a single case, who were granted a concession allowing them to grow and use marijuana for recreational and personal use.

The ruling does not imply a general legalization nor does it signify a major shift in the country’s anti-drug stance but it sets an important legal precedent and it has shifted public attention towards a much-needed debate in a country plagued by drug violence and flooded with cartel money.

Discussions of marijuana legalization are taking place among lawmakers and policymakers across the globe.

Although possession of marijuana is still illegal in most countries, many have decriminalized it – and a number of others could be next to legalize marijuana.

“We were having dinner—my daughter, grandchild, and me,” says Ramona, a 67-year-old Mexican woman who is serving a sentence of four-and-a-half years in one of Mexico’s most dangerous prisons. “I was lying on the couch watching a soap opera … when I realized that there were several men inside the house yelling at me to hand over the drugs.”

The police, wearing masks, ransacked Ramona’s house and allegedly stole her personal belongings before hauling her off to the prosecutor’s office. They claimed they had witnessed her selling marijuana and crack cocaine to a man, though the man himself said he had never seen her before.

Mexico may soon enter an elite club composed of Holland, Portugal, Uruguay and Colorado, Oregon and Washington state: It’s on the verge of excluding marijuana from the destructive war on drugs. But will the United States stand in its way?

Two-thirds of Mexicans oppose the legalization of marijuana, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday, days after the Supreme Court opened the door to legalizing cannabis.

But 63 percent are in favor of a debate on whether to end the country's marijuana prohibition, according to the survey published by El Universal newspaper.

The telephone poll was taken on November 6 and 7 among 1,000 adults, two days after the top court authorized four individuals to grow marijuana for their personal consumption.

But he said he was willing to listen to other opinions.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Monday he opposes any eventual legalization of marijuana, five days after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of four people who wanted to grow pot for personal use.

Pena Nieto said in a speech that "for me it would not be desirable, I am not in favor of an eventual legalization of marijuana," but said he was willing to listen to other opinions.

The president said he welcomed a debate on the question, and invited doctors, sociologists and other academics to contribute, but said it "should in no way represent an opening for the consumption of much more dangerous drugs."

A senator from President Enrique Pena Nieto's governing party introduced a bill Tuesday that would allow patients easier access to cannabis-based medicines, a week after a ruling by Mexico's Supreme Court that cracked open a door to recreational marijuana use.

The measure does not propose wholesale legalization of medical marijuana but rather seeks to permit the importation of cannabis and derivatives for medicinal purposes. Domestic pot production would still be prohibited.