Viewing marijuana simply as a recreational drug to get you high is reductive.

Marijuana legalization has been a political issue in the United States for some time, and while it remains illegal in most states, others have softened their stance in recent years. Colorado and Washington both passed initiatives by popular vote to decriminalize and legalize cannabis in 2012. In 2014, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., followed suit. Many states including Massachusetts, California, Missouri, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada and Ohio have flirted with legalization for a few election cycles, with buzz growing.

The United States isn't the only country where people use marijuana legally or illicitly. In fact, it isn’t even the country with the highest reported marijuana use.

The farming of medical marijuana is loosening in Latin America just as steadily—actually, a bit more so—than here in the US. In Chile, the laws are a bit strange (possession, sale, and transport of recreational marijuana is illegal), but as of 2015, it's legal to cultivate the crop and to sell it in stores as a prescription medication.

Wherever legalization goes, money and development follow, and so last week we saw the official opening of Latin America’s largest medical marijuana farm, a totally legal operation a few hours south of Santiago that hopes to harvest about 1.65 tons of marijuana this spring.

While much of the focus on legalizing marijuana is on the United State there are countries making real progress South of the border.

The Supreme Court in Mexico handed down a landmark ruling in November that declared overall prohibition unconstitutional. The case was brought by four individual citizens. The arguments were not some long list of regulatory details but instead a more fundamental question of basic human rights.

Story highlights

• New field grows marijuana legally for approved medical use
• Public approval of marijuana has shifted in Chile
• 86% of Chile's populace approves of medical use marijuana

There are thousands of green, leafy, marijuana plants as far as the eye can see at different stages of growth. But this is not a clandestine field of pot in the mountains of northern Mexico, guarded by gunmen on the payroll of a drug cartel. It's a cannabis production site that is not only legal, but also endorsed and regulated by the government.

Most legal plantations of cannabis in Latin America is neither in Uruguay nor in Mexico nor Peru, but in a rural area of southern 

Latin America's largest medicinal marijuana farm was formally inaugurated on Tuesday, marking another step in the region's growing acceptance of therapeutic uses for the formerly illegal plant.

SANTIAGO: Latin America's largest medicinal marijuana farm was formally inaugurated on Tuesday, marking another step in the region's growing acceptance of therapeutic uses for the formerly illegal plant.

The 6,900-stalk plantation, located in the small town of Colbun, some 275 kilometers (170 miles) south of Santiago, will help treat some 4,000 patients from across Chile, organizers said.

The biggest medical marijuana farm in Latin America has been formally opened in Chile. The 6,900-stalk plantation was inaugurated on 19 January in the small town of Colbun, 170 miles south of the capital Santiago, and organisers say it could help around 4,000 patients across the country.

Between March and May, the project aims to harvest around 1.5 tonnes (1.65 tons) of the plant, under the supervision of the government's agricultural service, SAG. According to High Times, 0.43 grams of cannabis is typically used in one joint, meaning the Colbun project could produce enough of the plant for around 30 million marijuana cigarettes over those three months.

Number one: Canada elects a marijuana-legalizing prime minister.

The global anti-drug regime has been in place for more than a half century now, but the prohibitionist consensus has been crumbling for at least 20 years, and the decomposition continued apace this year.

The international treaties that make up the legal backbone of international drug prohibition still stand, but they are under increasing attack at the United Nations, which will take them up again next year. They are increasingly being breached (especially by marijuana legalization at the national and sub-national level) and nibbled away at around the edges by moves like drug decriminalization and some harm reduction measures such as supervised injection facilities.

Green Medicine is a new documentary film that gives an insight into the medical cannabis scene in Chile. It follows the story of Daya Foundation, a non-profit organisation, that was granted a licence by the Chilean government to begin Latin America's first legal cannabis grow in 2014.

Does cannabis make a difference to the quality of life of medical patients suffering from a range of illnesses, including epilepsy and cancer?

The documentary team behind Green Medicine: Chile's medical cannabis Revolution spent 6 months following the progress of the medical marihuana debate in the country. The film features numerous interviews and highlights the arguments for and against the legalization of cannabis, for use by medical patients.