April 20 is World Marijuana Day.

It's just over two years since Jamaica decriminalised small quantities. And Canada was set yesterday to announce what's likely to be a bolder experiment.

So what has changed, and what hasn't?

The big change in Jamaica is for small-scale users. Possession of up to two ounces is no longer a criminal offence. You can grow up to five plants at home. And smoking in public is a minor matter, with a fine equivalent to TT$25.

For perhaps a few hundred-thousand Jamaicans those reforms make a huge difference. They remove the daily risk of arrest, prison, a substantial fine—and a criminal record which blocks some employment or a US visa.

As marijuana legalization looms, municipal governments are scrambling to develop policy to support the federal regulation of the drug.

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA), which says it represent 85 per cent of Albertans in various cities, towns and villages, is one of the organizations that needs more time than the current July 2018 deadline.

Lisa Holmes, the president of the AUMA and the mayor of Morinville, said Thursday she's concerned municipalities won't have enough time to prepare themselves for cannabis legalization.

"Their [the federal government's] timelines are just too fast," Holmes said. "It will take longer than a year. There's no question."

Fiery rhetoric on marijuana legalization from Attorney General Jeff Sessions is prompting some states to preemptively act to limit federal power over local pot laws.

“They could start issuing a bunch of threat letters, they could begin raiding and arresting people in various states,” Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “While those things are definitely scary and would ruin any number of people’s lives and careers, that’s not going to stop the momentum in the industry.”

A DRUG that turns users in ‘zombies’ is made in Chinese labs and smuggled to the UK in the post, it has been reported.

Spice, which has been banned in the UK and is 100 times stronger than cannabis, is causing havoc on the streets of the UK and is behind a raft of people suffering severe psychotic episodes, terrifying hallucinations, vomiting and seizures in public.

The Marijuana industry is growing rapidly, and at the moment it seems as if nearly everyone wants in.

According to cannabis research firm ArcView, legal cannabis sales in North America surged by 34% last year to $6.9 billion, and by 2021, sales of legal weed are expected to top $22 billion. Investment firm Cowen & Co. is arguably even more bullish, calling for $50 billion in legal pot sales by 2026, which works out to a compounded annual growth rate of more than 23%.

While it’s not yet on calendars, April 20 has become the unofficial holiday of marijuana, particularly in the growing number of states where pot has been decriminalized for recreational use. “It has become hugely celebrated,” says Brett Konen, an editor with Seattle-based Leafly.com, which calls itself the world’s largest cannabis information source. The Trump administration has indicated it may crack down on marijuana, but the industry continues to grow for now. Konen shares cannabis culture hotspots with Larry Bleiberg for USA TODAY.

Canada is on track to become the second country in the world to legalize the consumption and sale of recreational marijuana, after Uruguay made the big leap in 2014.

On Thursday, the Liberal government introduced its Cannabis Act, which allows people aged 18 and over to purchase and consume marijuana.

Much like alcohol, many of the nuts and bolts of legislation will be left to the provinces, who will be able to raise the minimum age if they so wish, and will be required to implement a retail system.

Adults 18 and older will be able to legally buy and cultivate small amounts of marijuana for personal use, while selling the drug to a minor will become a serious new criminal offence under the federal Liberal government’s proposed new legal-pot regime.

A suite of legislation introduced Thursday would, once passed, establish a “strict legal framework” for the production, sale, distribution and possession of pot, and make it against the law to sell cannabis to youth or use a young person to commit a cannabis-related crime.

New penalties would range from a simple police citation to 14 years behind bars.

Nashville and Memphis received great fanfare last fall from criminal justice advocates for passing local ordinances that gave police the power to reduce penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

But now it's over after just seven months.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday signed into law Republican-backed legislation to repeal separate Nashville and Memphis laws that had allowed partial marijuana decriminalization in those communities, officially putting an end to the short-lived policies.

An article that was circulated online Thursday had many people believing marijuana had been legalized in Texas, but that was just a pipe dream.

Many people wrote and called KPRC 2 asking about the article, which stated that the Lone Star State had legalized cannabis. The article appeared to have originated from a website aimed at pranking friends with fake news stories.

Recreational marijuana is still illegal for Texans, and there is only one lawful use for medical marijuana in the state -- treating patients suffering from intractable epilepsy.