Three police forces have acknowledged that growing and using cannabis is no longer to be treated as a priority crime.

While cannabis remains a Class B drug in the UK, police chiefs including Durham’s Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg, say they will not actively pursue those growing or using leaves for personal, recreational use.

And Alan Charles, Derbyshire's PCC, told the Daily Mail: "When we are faced with significant budget cuts we cannot keep turning out to every single thing reported to us."

EMMA Litleton will conduct an international hunt to discover how medicinal cannabis can best treat seriously-ill children.

The Moonee Valley woman is among 23 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust recipients, which will enable her to head overseas to pursue her studies.

Ms Litleton, a senior solicitor, is a specialist in children’s law and said the prevalence of children being treated with cannabis oil had increased.

“There’s a lot of ethical issues with children, where we have to ensure that their best interests are met and that it is safe,” Ms Litleton said.

He said children given cannabis mainly had “serious epilepsy” and their parents had found conventional medication wasn’t working.

Marijuana decriminalization and legalization initiatives are not only sweeping through the U.S. — countries across the world are beginning to signal the green light for cannabis policy reform.

Here are 10 countries where lawmakers and public sentiment are changing the tide on cannabis policy.

1. Jamaica

Jamaica — home to the Rastafarian movement — recently joined the list of countries to decriminalize marijuana, and this year it will be hosting the World Cannabis Cup in Negril Nov. 12-15.

Over 250,000 people in the Netherlands have used the party drug ecstasy at least once in the past year, according to new figures published on Friday. The research, by the national statistics office CBS and drugs research group Trimbos Institute, involved questioning a representative group of 6,000 people. The figures show that 2.5% of the Dutch population take ecstasy, compared with a European average of 0.6%. The Dutch are also more likely to take amphetamines than any other Europeans. In terms of cannabis use, around 8% of the Dutch have used it in the past year, which is above the 5.7% EU average but well below France (11%), Spain (9%) and the Czech Republic (9%).

In a Cannabis News Network special, James Burton speaks out on the turbulent history of medicinal cannabis in the Netherlands. 

The Netherlands is still considered for many countries as a model for more liberate cannabis policies.

One of these models, is the medicinal cannabis program currently in place.

But as James Burton’s story reveals, the Dutch no longer rightfully export solely good ideas.

After hearing James Burton tell his story, three questions come to mind:

Thinking of going to Amsterdam to get stoned? Think again. While "coffee shops" still sell all manner of legal ways to get ripped, the law was changed two years ago so that only residents of the Netherlands can legally purchase marijuana in these cafes.

How about feeding pigeons in San Francisco or carrying your shopping in a plastic bag in Rwanda? Sounds harmless but both those acts are actually prohibited.

In Florence, Italy, it is an offence to sit and eat on the steps of major churches and public buildings. 

Note the wide disparity of drug prices across the countries surveyed.

With the recent turn of economic events in Greece and China, it has become ever more apparent that we live in increasingly globalized world in which economies are inextricably linked.

This begged the question; are national drug economies linked in a similar manner?

In this informative video, BuzzFeed shows you how much coffee, cannabis, cigarettes, cocaine, whiskey, and heroin can you buy for $20 U.S. dollars around the world.

This weekend, a group of volunteers are wrapping up a 420 km bike ride with a very specific goal in mind: making money for a clinical trial of cannabis as a potential treatment to fight brain cancer

A recent opinion poll in Holland showed a staggering 70% of people are now firmly in favour of a complete overhaul of Dutch cannabis laws and want to see a regulated system for the supply of cannabis.  Currently possession of small amounts of cannabis are tolerated, and the famous Dutch Coffee shops allow people to buy small amounts of cannabis for personal medical or recreational use.  But the supply of cannabis to coffee shops remains completely illegal.  The survey by Motivaction also showed that 61% want to see a system of permits introduced for controlled production of cannabis.

The process against Dutch coffee shop owner Johan van Laarhoven started in the court in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday. He stands accused of laundering 20 million euros.

Van Laarhoven is the founder of The Grass Company. He has been living in Thailand for several years. He was arrested last year after Justice in the Netherlands tipped off the Thai police, Omroep Brabant reports.

Van Laarhoven’s lawyer, Sidney Smeets, told Omroep Brabant that his client is living in horrid circumstances in the Thai prison. “It’s barbaric. You would not wish it on anyone, but certainly not on a smart entrepreneur who only earned money in the Netherlands with tolerated coffee shops.” According to the lawyer, Thai investigators do not understand the Dutch tolerance policy.