Peter Christ, ex US Police Captain and LEAP outlines arguments for why drug prohibition is not a good idea. LEAP stands for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The precipitous rise in public approval for legalized marijuana has accelerated over the last year. A spate of victories for cannabis proponents in early November was a fitting corollary to the Gallup poll a month earlier, revealing that 58 percent of Americans approve of marijuana legalization, and also seemed to confirm that the United States is on an inexorable march toward a mostly (if not entirely) regulated market for the plant: currently, 20 states plus DC permit either recreational or medical marijuana use, and cannabis industry experts predict that 14 more states will be added to that roster in the next five years.

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The Anti-Drug Alliance is calling for the decriminalisation of dagga, saying money spent on criminalising it should be spent on rehabilitating drug users.

In a report, “At what cost? The futility of the war on drugs in South Africa”, released this month, the alliance’s chief executive, Quintin van Kerken, said legalising dagga would help to make the government money, as it would be able to tax it.

www.economist.com 11.12.2013 by H.C.

“A CRITICAL turning point in the failed war against drugs,” is the verdict of Martin Jelsma of the Drugs and Democracy Programme at the Transnational Institute, an Amsterdam-based think-tank. On December 10th Uruguay’s Senate approved a law that not only legalised marijuana use but also regulated its production and sale. Others have gone down this route before: the American states of Colorado and Washington legalised marijuana for recreational use in 2012. But Uruguay is the first country to do so.

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

WITH JAMAICA'S Ministry of Justice positioning itself to seek approval from Cabinet for the decriminalisation of marijuana, government Senator Mark Golding said the country is to advance constitutional justification to its international partners for the revision of the law.

Golding, the country's justice minister, said his ministry is giving active consideration to reforming the law relating to ganja in Jamaica.

Responding to questions posed in the Senate by Robert Montague yesterday, Golding said the revised law would permit the possession of small amounts of ganja, about two ounces, for recreational use.

Authorized medical patients in Romania may now use marijuana derivatives to allay their pain under new provisions in two of the country's narcotic laws, according to local reports.