Consumers have a wide selection of hemp based food and cosmetics, but regulations and scientific information have not kept up.

Commercial hemp production was not allowed for many years because it was confused with other types of cannabis, and authorities did not want products with high levels of the intoxicant tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), said Daniel Kruse of Hemp International in Germany, which sells seeds, hulled nuts, oil, cosmetics and hemp garments.

Canada lifted its ban in 1998 with a set of regulations on allowable limits of THC. The European Union also allows hemp cultivation, but there are inconsistencies across the region when it comes to THC levels in food products.

Regarding Howard Wooldridge’s commentary, there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalisation (The lives and trillions of dollars sacrificed on the altar of futile modern prohibition, Comment, November 15). Switzerland's heroin maintenance programme has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime by providing addicts with standardised doses in a clinical setting. Its success has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreation is legal under the right to freedom. The measure was approved in 4-1 vote on the five-justice panel, backing the argument that smoking marijuana is covered under the right of “free development of personality.”

Here’s a quick look at five countries where Marijuana is legal and what the law states:

Czech Republic

A helicopter pilot who once worked for Rega, the Swiss emergency rescue service, has been arrested in Spain along with his Swiss co-pilot after being caught in a chopper with 600 kilograms of cannabis, according to media reports.

The 68-year-old pilot, a Frenchman who lives in Basel, is being detained in prison along with 14 other people after Spanish narcotics police busted two drug smuggling rings in the Malaga region, the Blick newspaper reported online on Monday.

Is it better to have drug use made legal, and therefore taxed and regulated, or might this encourage more drugs to be consumed – with the social and other costs associated with that? 

The UN wants its members to decriminalise drugs, and Sir Richard Branson thinks that is just great. Well, it is not quite like that; as so often, the story is more nuanced than the headline. The paper Sir Richard leaked, which urges “decriminalising drug use and possession for personal consumption”, was drawn up for a conference in Kuala Lumpur on harm reduction by Dr Monica Beg, an official at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. It has since been withdrawn and, as you can gather from the outcry, it is certainly a “third-rail issue” – you touch it at your peril.

By Sylent Jay

The Swiss cannabis landscape has been under scrutiny lately. Since January 2015, consumers of the plant residing in Switzerland have been targeted by the government, with the help of Customs personnel as well as of police forces.

Switzerland in backwards motion since 2005

During the ‘90s and early ‘00s, Switzerland was somewhat of a quiet haven for cannabis consumers, offering for instance many options in terms of hemp-related items; clothing, hygiene products, and even some not-made-for-consumption cannabis-based products such as pot-pourris. Large metropolises especially, were riddled with shops selling these types of articles.

Australian medical cannabis company MMJ PhytoTech Limited has just sold its first marijuana pills. The bad news: They are only available in Europe.

The capsules were sold in August via a Swiss-based subsidiary, Satipharm. 10 milligrams of the medication will set you back 89 euros (A$139.95).

The pills are registered as a dietary supplement in Germany. Their active ingredient, Cannabidiol (CBD), is made from a special medical cannabis strain and they do not contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that causes most of marijuana's psychological effects when smoked.

Australian medical marijuana company MMJ PhytoTech has generated its first revenues from sales of its cannabis pill.

The CBD (Cannabidiol) capsules, registered as a dietary supplement in Germany, started retailing in Europe in August for about 3 euros each ($4.70).

The company intends to produce a total 1 million of the Swiss-made capsules in 2015. The pills, only available in Europe, are sold online.

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."