A cannabis ‘garden’ sprouting next to Mexico’s Senate building has become a smoker’s paradise, with Mexican stoners lighting up joints without fear of arrest.

The cannabis seeds sowed in a plaza by Mexico’s Senate by pro-marijuana activists in February have mushroomed into strikingly large plants, and become symbolic of a drive to legalize marijuana in a nation riven by drugs-related violence.

“Being able to smoke here (in the garden) in freedom is very important to me,” said Marco Flores, a barista sitting on a bench overlooking the Congress building.