After decades of intransigence on the issue, the Drug Enforcement Administration may finally recommend removing marijuana from the list of the country’s most dangerous drugs. That list was created as part of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of 1970, which consolidated all federal drug laws into a single comprehensive measure and defined marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, alongside heroin, LSD and other drugs that the government says have no medical value and the highest potential for abuse. That meant marijuana was saddled with the strictest possible restrictions and penalties.

“This region has been at the forefront of the reform process.” That’s what Alejandro Hope had to say about shifts toward more progressive drug policies in the Americas in recent years. Hope, a drug policy analyst and security editor at the Mexico City-based news site El Daily Post, spoke with AS/COA Online’s Carin Zissis about what the region’s policy changes mean on a global scale as the UN prepares to host a special summit, known as UNGASS 2016, on the worldwide drug problem from April 19 to 21.

"The hawks are no longer in this hemisphere."

Jamaican lawmakers will debate a constitutional amendment that would replace Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and make the island a republic.

The proposal is a “major action item” on the new government’s 2016-2017 legislative agenda, and would replace the Queen with a Non-Executive President, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen said Thursday in a speech to parliament posted on the government’s website.

Jamaican Labour Party leader Andrew Holness scraped a narrow win in general elections in February as voters opted for promises of tax cuts and a higher minimum wage over the previous government’s austerity program.

Results from studies regarding drug use in the United States showed that marijuana use remains to be the primary drug choice among 22 million people aged 12 and above. Various studies, research and actual cases, showed divided results and beliefs regarding the medical implications of marijuana use, including the government, private entities and hospitals.

The federal government’s stance

Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh are teaming up with other prominent Massachusetts politicians to form a ballot committee to fight against the legalization of recreational marijuana.

"As we face a substance addiction crisis of epic proportions, I oppose measures that make it easier to introduce young people to drug use," DeLeo said in a statement.

Maine's top election official says he's moving forward with another review of signatures submitted in support of a marijuana referendum.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced Wednesday he won't appeal a judge's decision that revived the referendum proposal.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol had disputed Dunlap's rejection of 26,779 signatures because the signature of the notary didn't match the signature on file in Augusta. A judge reversed his decision, saying the requirement of identical signatures was unreasonable.

Dunlap said the new review will be conducted "as expeditiously as possible." He said a new determination will be made "pursuant to the court order."

Lee Carroll Brooker, a 75-year-old disabled veteran suffering from chronic pain, was arrested in July 2011 for growing three dozen marijuana plants for his own medicinal use behind his son’s house in Dothan, Ala., where he lived. For this crime, Mr. Brooker was given a life sentence with no possibility of release.

Alabama law mandates that anyone with certain prior felony convictions be sentenced to life without parole for possessing more than 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of marijuana, regardless of intent to sell. Mr. Brooker had been convicted of armed robberies in Florida two decades earlier, for which he served 10 years. The marijuana plants collected at his son’s house — including unusable parts like vines and stalks — weighed 2.8 pounds.

In March 2015, an odd trio of U.S. Senators assembled to announce the introduction of marijuana reform legislation. Cory Booker, a liberal Democrat from New Jersey; Kirsten Gillibrand, a more moderate Democrat from New York; and Rand Paul, a libertarian leaning Republican from Kentucky introduced the CARERS Act. The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States Act seeks significant reforms in marijuana policy in the United States.

Orlando officials now are showing some lenience when it comes to the possession of marijuana, and it may help further the current effort of establishing a medical marijuana industry in Florida.

City commissioners on April 18 will vote on a measure that would decriminalize the possession of 20 grams or less of marijuana. Instead of making an arrest, officers can issue fines beginning at $50, according to city of Orlando documents. Fines would increase, and a possible court hearing would be mandated, for repeat offenders.

New Jersey, where property, corporate and income taxes are among the highest in the U.S., now can also claim the nation’s most expensive medical marijuana. Governor Chris Christie, who has railed against the state’s cost of living, says pricey pot is fine with him.

The second-term Republican, who has called the cannabis-therapy movement a “front for legalization,” says he’ll block Democratic lawmakers’ latest efforts to broaden the list of conditions eligible for treatment. The program’s restrictions are causing the state to miss out on millions of dollars in tax revenue, sponsors say.