BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Colombia just discarded a cornerstone of the American-backed fight against drugs, blocking the aerial spraying of coca, the plant used to make cocaine. Bolivia kicked out the United States Drug Enforcement Administration years ago and allows farmers to grow small amounts of the crop.

LONDON - Cannabis users looking for someone to share a joint with have a new app that lets them find like-minded smokers around the world.

The creator of the Who is Happy app, a Brazilian epilepsy sufferer who wants the drug decriminalized, says his software is a kind of "Foursquare for stoners," comparing it to the app that allows users to rate restaurants and other places they visit.

"The app is the first global platform of its kind allowing cannabis consumers to connect and unite to promote happiness while de-stigmatizing and hopefully decriminalizing cannabis use around the world," Paulo Costa said.

Parents took children with epilepsy and other diseases to demand the release of cannabidiol for medical treatments in Brazil

The March of Rio de Janeiro Marijuana had two themes this year: the struggle for freedom of all herb growers who are arrested and solidarity to the victims of the drug war. The lawyer André Barros, author of representation in the Supreme Court (STF) that misread the march as an apology for marijuana, said that currently there are 20 people arrested due to the production plant in the state capital alone.

Proven therapeutic effects on one hand, contradictory laws and moralism on the other, barring the necessary discussion on the use of the herb for various purposes; in the opinion of many consumers, plant the grass at home is a way to not feed the economic chain of the armed drug trafficking, but the initiative still opposes the current Drug Act, which gives loopholes so that, once caught, homemade planters are fined as traffickers.

Budweiser may still be smarting from its most recent public embarrassment, but the beer brand apologized yesterday for its inappropriate tagline: “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.”

In an atmosphere charged with the ongoing national conversation about sexual assault, it’s truly amazing that any brand—let alone alcohol—would be so carelessly cavalier.

But alcohol is alcohol, and Bud isn’t the first brand to tease the darker elements of its nature. A therapist might even say alcohol brands have a self-destructive personality disorder.

Who is Happy wants users to (safely) tell the world how much they love pot, and thereby incite social change

With the app Who is Happy, a user who’s just elevated their day with cannabis can anonymously declare their joy by tapping a button and activating a green, one-kilometer-wide zone on a map, thereby sharing the approximate location of their happy place, so to speak.

App users can also see other “happy users” nearby, track their personal “happiness” habits, and see how the green joy stacks up in countries across the globe.

The Global Marijuana March (GMM) is kicking off at different locations across the world taking place this year on Saturday May 2, 2015 and include marches, meetings, rallies, concerts, festivals and other relevant information and events relating to cannabis.

The Global Marijuana March began in 1999 which have had hundreds of thousands of people participated in over 829 different cities in 72 countries worldwide since its inception.

The Global Marijuana March is a celebration embracing cannabis culture as a personal lifestyle choice. Participants unite to discuss, promote, entertain and educate both consumers and non-consumers alike.

Thousands of Brazilians will celebrate 4/20 this week, but few could tell you why they’re coming out for pot at the end of April. There’s no 420 police code in Brazil, and like most other countries they write April 20th as 20/4 anyway. In fact, because of Mother’s Day and annual soccer championships, the date f 4/20 gets shuffled.

Internationally, drug policy is at a crossroads: the debate is shifting from a paradigm based on criminalising drug users, to a more public-health-oriented approach. But is this only a change in rhetoric, or a sign of real political reform? We asked activists who have been attending the CND for several years. 

After being elected to his second term as president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff wanted to make clear that it intends to follow the steps initiated by Uruguay, and analyzed in other countries in the region regarding the legalization of marijuana. It was the Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo, in charge of communicating that during the four years of the new term "legalization of drugs is not on the agenda".

The clarification was given in response to proposed bipartisan opposition to propose the decriminalization of drugs as a method to avoid saturating prisons. But Cardozo explained that Rousseff's government will not solve the problem of overcrowding in prisons legalizing drugs, but building more prisons.