Inside and outside the kitchen, chefs have been known to get into the weeds–but the majority of culinary cannabis creations have been mainly limited to a few cakes, cookies, and of course, the archetypal pot brownie. In GQ, writer Jesse Pearson opined, “We’re a nation that obsesses over food and chefs as much as we secretly obsess over drugs, but to judge by the sad trifles on display at legal weed dispensaries, the evolution of the pot snack stalled back when Janis Joplin was still alive. It’s mostly just variations on a theme: cookies, cupcakes, fudge… Yawn. Sickly sweet and uninspired.”

Perry asked me not to use his last name. It wasn’t because of the plants in his basement — they’re perfectly legal now — but more out of garden-variety stoner’s paranoia. He worried some enemy might see his name in the news and come looking for him.

Whatever — his identity isn’t important. It’s not like he was leaking potentially false information about weapons of mass destruction. I was just there to talk to him about his experience and his opinions. He has red hair, thinning on top, but growing vigorously in a bushy beard beneath. He’s wearing rectangular framed glasses, a Grant Farm concert T-shirt, and shorts.

Drug Enforcement Agency chair Michele Leonhart was done in by her agents’ unsanctioned, cartel-funded sex parties in Colombia, but it’s marijuana legalization advocates who are excited to see her go. 

“Hopefully this is a sign that the Reefer Madness era is coming to an end at the DEA,” said Mason Tvert, the director on communications at the Marijuana Policy Project. “Michelle Leonhart has maintained an opinion about marijuana akin to the opinion people had back in the 30s.” 

A study released last week from Aarhus University’s Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research showed that some 17,000 Danes between the ages of 15 and 25 smoke cannabis at least 20 days per month. Previously, the Danish Health and Medicine Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) presumed that the number was just 11,000. 

The study also showed that 43 percent of Danish youths have tried cannabis and that one in ten has smoked it within the past month. 

“Cannabis abuse is a bigger problem than previously assumed,” Mads Uffe Pedersen, a professor at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, told Kristeligt Dagblad.

Surprisingly, none of these reasons are that it makes bass-heavy hip hop tracks sound great, or that it really brings out the best in pizza.

With recreational marijuana now legalised in two American states, political momentum is building up towards full legalisation across the pond.

Even here in the UK, experts are now speaking out in favour of the idea – in the hope that a political ‘domino effect’ leads to worldwide relaxation of anti-drug laws following the US’s lead.

Just in time for 4/20 – the pro-dope day being celebrated here as well as in the U.S. – here are some of the most persuasive reasons experts offer for why we should free the weed.

1) Weed is 114 times safer than alcohol

According to the recent study published by the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), by the age of 17 one in two have tried cannabis in 2014. More worrying, they are almost one in ten do make it a habit.

"It is not serious at 17 years", wrote Rimbaud. But how? For the first time in a decade, is cannabis use bullish among French adolescents.

If the study published Tuesday by the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction does not tell us much more about the reasons for this increase, the figures are nonetheless revealing.

47.8% of young people have already tried cannabis

It is on trend these days to support the growing marijuana business model. There are two parts of the discussion – medical marijuana that is now legalized in twenty-three states and the District of Columbia; as well as the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in four states. On CNN’s Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution hosted by Sanjay Gupta M.D., President Obama reiterated that, “I’m on record as saying not only do I think carefully prescribed medical use of marijuana may in fact be appropriate and we should follow the science as opposed to ideology.”

Medical-cannabis campaigners have slammed the increasing use of roadside saliva testing by police on the north coast and across the state to fight illegal drug use, saying the devices used are inaccurate and having negative impacts.

With just over a week to go before the 23rd annual cannabis-law reform Mardi Grass festival and rally at Nimbin, the state government is being urged to re-look its saliva-testing program, which the cannabis-law-reform lobby says unfairly targets medical and recreational cannabis users and has ‘nothing to do with (driving) impairment’.

Ben & Jerry's Homemade said it was considering making pot-flavored ice cream "where it was legal," but it's been beaten to the punch. Isaac Lappert, a third-generation ice cream purveyor and graduate of the Culinary Institute, has started Cannabis Creamery in (rich) hippie and hot-tub central: Sausalito, California.

Cannabis Creamery's mission, as described on its Facebook page: "To give you first and foremost a high quality tasting ice cream with a kick to it ;)." (Pun no doubt intended.)

On Sunday night, a brick pub in Gastown hosted the Great Northern Extraction— an event billed as the largest recreational marijuana concentrate competition ever held, anywhere.

Nearly 300 people came together to judge 19 samples in four categories: indica, sativa, hybrid and solvent-less. Each category was defined by either the family origin of plant matter used or chemical variables in extract production. Judging was based on the aroma, flavour, strength, smoothness and appearance of each sample.

The location for The Great Northern Extraction was kept secret. Even competitors waited until the final hours for details because the contest, samples and methods behind marijuana extraction are illegal under current Federal law.