Somewhere in Argentina, a man is growing marijuana on his balcony, with the blessing of the Camara Federal, a court of appeals. They overturned his conviction, calling it unconstitutional.
In Italy, the Court of Cassation (think Supreme Court) overturned a local ruling that sentenced a reggae musician to 16 months in prison for possessing enough cannabis to roll 70 joints. They recognized the plant as a Rastafarian sacrament, and given the great quantity of weed smoked by members of this religion ... well, it seemed a plausible stash for personal consumption.
Austria does even better. There, 22 pounds can be understood as an amount for personal use - a public prosecutor recently dismissed a case against a man who'd harvested that much, in light of a new law decriminalizing cannabis for personal use, regardless of quantity.
The Swiss are voting on a similar initiative in late November.
So when Massachusettians (well, why not? It's better than calling them Massholes, a moniker I heard more than a few times living in Vermont last year) get to vote on a marijuana penalty reduction initiative on their ballots this November, let's hope they take their cues from our neighbors to the west and south, and not from the drug warmongers.
Posted by Vera Leone