Criminal Justice and Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI)

Criminal Justice and Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) · 4.5 Prevention of Criminalization

One indicator of the dimension, with the full justification of its traffic light. The bar leads to any other; at the bottom, the next one in the order of the matrix.

1144.5 Prevention of Criminalization

Access to Treatment Without Criminalization

Partially meets

Partially meets the criterion.

Mexico has a national healthcare framework for substance use disorder treatment, including legal provisions, technical standards, and institutional treatment services. Evidence confirms the existence of care mechanisms and national treatment-demand reporting systems.

However, available evidence does not demonstrate that treatment access occurs effectively and broadly without interaction with criminal justice mechanisms or barriers associated with criminalization. Therapeutic justice alternatives expand treatment options within judicial processes, but they do not constitute a fully health-based and non-punitive access model. The lack of national data on non-criminal health referrals, access barriers, and outcomes limits a higher classification.

Therefore, Mexico has regulatory and operational foundations, but available evidence supports only partial implementation of access to treatment without criminalization.

Sources (7): the documents that support the traffic light
  1. ¿Qué son los Centros Comunitarios de Salud Mental y Adicciones? (CONASAMA) (Document · 2024)
  2. Cámara de Diputados del H. Congreso de la Unión. (2026). Ley General de Salud (Legislation · 2009)
  3. Ley General de Salud — DOF (Diario Oficial de la Federación), arts. 473 y 479 (Document · 2009)
  4. Comisión Nacional de Salud Mental y Adicciones. (2024). Informes sobre la demanda de tratamiento por consumo de sustancias psicoactivas (Report)
  5. Documenta. (2024). A 2 años de la reforma en salud mental y adicciones ¿qué ha pasado? (Academic)
  6. Secretaría de Gobernación. (2023). Guía de implementación de justicia terapéutica (Regulation or programme)
  7. Secretaría de Salud. (2009). NOM-028-SSA2-2009, Para la prevención, tratamiento y control de las adicciones (Legislation)

Links lead to the original document or to its archived copy.

Traffic light
Partially meetscoded on 15-09-2026 · Complete / validated
International support
No
Indicator score
0.50 out of a possible 1.25
Weight in the index
0.48 %
What it means
There is a framework or actions, but implementation is partial, uneven or not proven. Rules.
In the dimension
22 of 25 in Criminal Justice and Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI). See those of Prevention of Criminalization.