Yahoo News The countries where it is - and isn't - legal to smoke weed
Canada has become the latest – and largest – country to legalise cannabis.
A handful of retail outlets opened in the country’s easternmost province, while a federal official confirmed that Canada will pardon all those with convictions for possessing up to 30 grams of marijuana, the now-legal threshold.
A formal announcement was planned for later on Wednesday. The official said those who want to take advantage of the pardons will have to apply.
Canada has had legal medical marijuana since 2001 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has spent two years working toward expanding that to include so-called recreational marijuana.
The goal is to better reflect society’s changing opinion about marijuana and bring black market operators into a regulated system.
Where is marijuana legal?
Uruguay was first was the first country to legalise marijuana and Canada now joins it as the only two countries in the world that have fully legalised the consumption and sale of recreational cannabis nationwide.
Nine US states have legalised recreational use of cannabis, and more than 30 have approved medical marijuana.
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California, the largest legal market in the US, earlier this month became the first state with a law mandating expungement of criminal convictions for marijuana-related offences that no longer are illegal.
The nine US states where marijuana is legal are Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.
Relaxed laws
While marijuana for recreational use remains illegal in most countries in the world, several have made it legal to use it for medicinal purposes.
The countries where this is the case are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.
The United Kingdom is set to follow suit from November.
Some countries also take a relaxed view to marijuana by decriminalising it – essentially treating possession and use similarly to minor traffic violations, rather than punishing people with arrests and prison sentences.
Countries where marijuana is decriminalised include Australia, Argentina, Italy, Mexico and Switzerland.
Tough punishments
With marijuana use illegal in most countries of the world, punishments vary.
While authorities often treat possession with a degree of leniency, tough prison sentences can also be enforced.
In Cyprus, cannabis is a Class B substance, and life imprisonment is possible for use and a maximum of eight years can be given to offenders for possession.
Consumption in Iceland is illegal even in small amounts and heavy fines are often given to anyone caught.
Japan are able to punish people convicted of use and possession of cannabis with up to five years in prison and a fine. Cultivation, sale, and transport are punishable by up to seven years or a decade imprisonment and a fine.
On the harsher end of the scale, Malaysian legislation dictates a mandatory death penalty for convicted drug traffickers. Individuals arrested in possession of 200g of marijuana are presumed by law to be trafficking in drugs
Cannabis is a Class A drug in Singapore and those who are caught with 500g of cannabis or more, are presumed as drug traffickers, and could also receive the death penalty.
