Edgbaston ground staff using cannabis plant lamps

The sun has not always shone at Edgbaston in recent days so the groundsman has sought some extra help

Such is the pressure on groundsmen in an Investec Ashes series in which pitches have dominated the agenda, Warwickshire have turned to an unlikely source of inspiration ahead of the third Test at Edgbaston. Head groundsman Gary Barwell, who is preparing his first Ashes surface, is using lights normally used for the cultivation of cannabis in the hope of preparing the perfect pitch.

Italy may well be on its way to becoming the largest country in Europe to legalize marijuana. An Italian tracking group has found that more than 250 lawmakers from across the political spectrum have given their support to a proposal that would largely decriminalize production, distribution, sale and consumption of marijuana throughout the nation.

The leap may appear far-fetched for a country that just 10 years ago voted in a draconian anti-drug bill that removed any distinction between hard and soft drugs, increasing sentences for pot smokers and heroin addicts alike.

The Danish National Institute of Public Health has released new figures showing that high school students are rejecting alcohol and hard drugs in favor of marijuana.

Over the past two decades, marijuana use among male high school students has almost doubled and use among female high school students has increased by half. In 1996, about one-in-four male teenage Danes (26 percent) had tried marijuana and about one-in-five female teenage Danes (19 percent) had tried marijuana. Today, half of all males (50 percent) and almost one-third of all females (31 percent) have tried marijuana.

Italy may well be on its way to becoming the largest country in Europe to legalize marijuana. An Italian tracking group has found that more than 250 lawmakers from across the political spectrum have given their support to a proposal that would largely decriminalize production, distribution, sale and consumption of marijuana throughout the nation.

The leap may appear far-fetched for a country that just 10 years ago voted in a draconian anti-drug bill that removed any distinction between hard and soft drugs, increasing sentences for pot smokers and heroin addicts alike.

The Danish National Institute of Public Health has released its latest findings. School aged kids binge drink less alcohol but are replacing it with cannabis. Obviously in a perfect world, no school kids would bother with cannabis but in the real world, younger people have tried and will continue to try cannabis. It is certainly less damaging than booze, but too much of anything is going to create problems. Half of Danish school boys and a third of girls have smoked cannabis. A little over a third of all Danes have tried pot. That is a lot by European standards.

Italian politicians took the first steps for a brave new world of legal cannabis this week when 200 of them agreed a draft text to legalize the growing, sale, transport and use of cannabis.  Specifically, if subsequently approved by Italian Parliament up to 15g of cannabis would be legal to possess, and up to 5 plants would be permitted.  Additionally, cannabis would be sold in Govt approved shops.

Peter Decuypere, the founder of the I Love Techno rave, has written an open letter in which he calls for the legalisation of soft drugs. Mr Decuypere intervenes in the debate after police made massive seizures of drugs at the Dour music festival in Wallonia.

During checks at the Dour festival 1,300 ecstasy pills, 690 lsd trips and nearly 3 kilos of cannabis were seized. Belgian police are planning similar operations at next weekend's Tomorrowland music festival.

The festival organiser says that a repressive attitude encourages risky behaviour with regard to drugs. Mr Decuypere believes that a repressive approach means that people do drugs in secret and that prevents all controls. In this way it's also more difficult to help people when things go pear-shaped.

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The public prosecutor requested 4 years in prison for the manager and initiator of several cannabis plantations at criminal court trial in Liege on Monday.

A total of 8 plantations were dismantled after bringing in a profit estimated at 524,000 euros over the course of several months. 20 other defendants are facing prison sentences of between 6 and 30 months. 8 cannabis plantations were dismantled in the Liège and Ghent areas late 2014. The plantations were managed by an organised Turkish-Vietnamese network.