You really would think that in 2016 we’d be long past weed legalisation opinion pieces.

The financial, social and medical benefits of cannabis legalisation have been exhaustively documented, and a host of other liberal democracies are either legalising or decriminalising weed or at the very least discussing its legalisation or decriminalisation.

And yet, the marijuana legalisation argument really gets scant attention here in Britain. Why so? It as if the public have lost the will to stamp their feet.

Amid a growing global trend by governments to decriminalise and legalise drugs, Singapore is standing firm that it will not go down that path.

Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs and National Development) Desmond Lee reinforced the country’s zero-tolerance stance against drugs at a United Nations (UN) event in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday (March 15), speaking at the final negotiations during the 59th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. This meeting comes before April’s UN General Assembly Special Session, a platform for nations to debate the future of global drug policy and review a 10-year global plan started in 2009 against drugs.

A "loophole" law allowing patients to import medicinal marijuana into New Zealand will not be changed, according to Associate Health Minster Peter Dunne.

The loophole means anyone entering the country can lawfully carry with them a one-month supply of medicinal cannabis or cannabis-related product, as long as it was legally prescribed by a medical practitioner overseas.

Dunne confirmed that it was "potentially possible" to bring a medicinal cannabis product prescribed overseas for their own use for a maximum of one month, without repeat.

"That has been in the law for over 40 years, and applies to all medicinal products, not just cannabis related products," he said.

• Ben Oakley, 20, is one of only 20 'Stiff Person Syndrome' with in Australia 
• The rare disease causes painful seizures which can last for hours 
• Cannabis oil is the only thing which alleviates his symptoms, but is illegal
• He's campaigning for it to be legalised in New South Wales
• Recently, he attended NSW parliament to push for it to be decriminalised 

A young man suffering from an extremely rare disease has found a solution which may save his life - medical marijuana - but knows every time he uses it he could be arrested.

A teenager’s appeal to have his request to use a cannabis-based medicine has been approved, three days before he finally succumbed to cancer.

The youngster had been pleading with the Health Ministry for two years to allow him to take the drug to ease his suffering but his request was only granted three days before he died.

The 19-year-old’s tragic case began when the medication he was taking at the time – to help ease his suffering – were not taking effect. He had previously been diagnosed with an incurable and inoperable brain tumour.

It was then that his doctors recommended that he make a request to the Health Ministry to allow him to take medicine – banned in Cyprus because it contains cannabis.

HONOLULU (AP) - Industry experts say there are a lot of chemicals that could contaminate Hawaii’s medical marijuana.

Dispensaries are set to open in Hawaii in July, and state lawmakers are pushing a broad bill to address many of the obstacles the industry is facing. One is how to regulate marijuana testing.

The proposed Hawaii law would set requirements for testing medical marijuana’s potency and would also test for contaminants such as heavy metals, bacteria and pesticides, which industry experts say is necessary to ensure patient safety. Under state rules, dispensaries must send all marijuana products to a certified laboratory for testing.

Singapore’s zero-tolerance drug policies are well-known, but new anti-addiction posters suggest government designers have been gobbling mind bending substances themselves.

The nation’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) has a whole archive of frankly, bizarre material warning children not to step outside the realm of the law, lest they die in a drug-fueled haze or are put on death row.

Several of the CNB’s strange cartoon characters and weird ‘nursery’ rhymes have become a talking point at this year’s UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) gathering.

Over the past few years, a growing number of Americans have voiced their support for legalizing marijuana, leading four states to legalize it for recreational and medical uses and 19 more for only medical purposes.

But does this sentiment apply to other illicit drugs? That's what Vox and Morning Consult sought to find out in a new poll of nearly 2,000 registered US voters.

The results overwhelmingly suggest that marijuana is a big outlier, and most US voters do not support decriminalizing non-marijuana drugs or legalizing them for medical or recreational purposes.

Follow the money. In politics, money can tell you more than opinion polls or prime ministerial speeches or newspaper columns. And beneath the skin of the drugs debate, the money is saying something interesting.

After mailing out dime bags to Canadian members of Parliament earlier this year, British Columbia weed activist and former New Democratic Party candidate Dana Larsen is expanding his pot giveaway to tokers from coast to coast.

Today, Larsen pledged to send free weed seeds to anyone wanting to plant a cannabis "victory garden" this spring. He says it's an effort to put pressure on the feds to keep their election promise and end pot prohibition.