If you think supporters of legalizing marijuana are all pot-smokers and hippies, think again.

After winning several legislative victories over the past few years, a close-knit corps of advocates is putting its full weight behind the Holy Grail of marijuana reform: Legislation that would make Delaware the ninth state to fully legalize, regulate and tax cannabis.

“We’re so close we can taste it,” said Cynthia Ferguson, executive director of the Delaware branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

How did Ferguson and her comrades get this far? By eschewing what they see as outdated clichés about tie-dyes and Cheech and Chong movies and arming themselves with arguments rooted in social justice, fiscal policy and economic development.

Hemp plants grow at Meigs Farm, part of Throckmorton Purdue Agricultural Center south of Lafayette. After the plant was legalized for research purposes in 2014, a Purdue professor planted in June 2015 Indiana’s first industrial hemp in 80 years.(Photo: Joseph Paul/Journal & Courier)

Trace amounts of the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana could soon be legal for Indiana epilepsy patients under a measure headed to Gov. Eric Holcomb's desk.

Ottawa is planning to set up a cannabis tracking system to collect information about marijuana products from licensed producers, distributors and retailers – just one of a host of proposed changes to be ushered in alongside legalization.

Health Canada says the proposed system, which would not track individual cannabis users, would allow businesses and regulators to trace all products and address recalls.

The tracking would also help to ensure cannabis is not being diverted to illegal markets, the department said, given the government’s stated and oft-repeated goal of limiting organized crime’s footprint in the pot trade.

As large crowds of marijuana activists and enthusiasts gathered in cities across Canada on Thursday, the question lingering in the smoke-filled air was simple: what’s the point?

Marijuana is expected to be legalized across the land by July 2018, and legislation has already been tabled in the House of Commons to that effect. Supporters of the legal, recreational use of the drug have seemingly won the day.

But the fight, according to many, is far from over.

Seven marijuana activists were arrested in Washington, D.C. on Thursday while they were handing out free joints to Capitol Hill staffers as part of a campaign to push for laws that would allow D.C. to regulate marijuana.

Three of the activists were charged with possession with intent to distribute, the Capitol police said, while four other people were charged with possession. It is legal to possess, grow and give away small amounts of marijuana in the nation’s capitol, but it is illegal to do so under federal law.

Canadian stoners rejoiced at the weekend after news broke that cannabis could soon be decriminalised. It would become the second country in the world, behind Uruguay, to make the move.

A statement released by the Canadian government said: "The current approach to cannabis does not work. It has allowed criminals and organized crime to profit, while failing to keep cannabis out of the hands of Canadian youth. In many cases, it is easier for our kids to buy cannabis than cigarettes.

"The proposed Cannabis Act would create a strict legal framework for controlling the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada."

As people across the country observed yesterday's unofficial holiday celebrating marijuana, aka “420,” it was the first time they were doing so under the Trump administration.

President Trump himself hasn’t spoken extensively about weed or the legalization debate, though suggesting he favored medical marijuana use when asked about it once on the campaign trail.

“I think that as far as drug legalization, we talk about marijuana, and in terms of medical, I think I am basically for that. I’ve heard some wonderful things in terms of medical,” he said at an MSNBC town hall event in Wisconsin in March 2016.

In today’s fractured political climate, there is one issue on which it appears Americans of all political parties can agree: legalising marijuana.

Sixty-one per cent of Americans think marijuana use should be legal, according to a recent poll from CBS. That’s a record for the poll, which has tracked sentiment on the issue since 1979.

“WHEN we think about our future, our dreams, we have nothing,” says a young man in Sidi Bouzid. Life in the Tunisian town that launched the Arab spring has barely changed since the country’s old dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, was ousted in 2011. Unemployment is even higher nationally than before the uprising. Young people are worst-off, which helps explain why an alarming number join jihadist groups. The frustration drives others, including this young man, to use zatla, the local name for cannabis.

When you go to a restaurant, do you order a cola?

No, chances are, you ask for a Coke or a Pepsi. That's the power of successful branding: the generic name of the product gets lost in the marketplace.

Now imagine ordering marijuana. Does a brand come to mind? Probably not.

But that could change, as a result of the Liberal government's proposed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana.

The question is: how will it change?