The Denpasar District Court sentenced on Thursday Australian national Nicholas James Langan and his Indonesian friend Hanung Pekik Hermantoro to a one-year term of imprisonment for smoking marijuana. The sentence was lighter than the four-year prison term demanded by the prosecutor.

Both Langan and Hermanto were arrested on Batu Bolong beach in North Kuta in late January as they shared a marijuana joint. Police seized a used marijuana joint weighing 0.1 grams and 0.86 grams of marijuana wrapped in brown paper.

The court found them guilty of violating Article 127 of Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics.

On Thursday, Gallup released a poll showing that 44 percent of Americans have said they've tried marijuana, the largest number the survey has ever recorded. This isn't too far off from what other polls have found (this Pew Research Center poll pegged the number at 49 percent), and given that people are being asked to admit to behavior that is illegal in most places, the true number is almost certainly higher. So we're past the point where most American adults have tried pot, which helps explain why support for legalization has also become a majority position.

In a shock move that many have described as cannabis pseudo-decriminalisation, Durham Police have announced that they will only prosecute individuals possessing or growing the class-B drug if they are ‘blatant’.

The policy has come soon after comments by the force’s Chief Constable, Mike Barton, who argued that investigating drug users is a “waste of police time”.

He believes that hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine should be decriminalised. His reasoning being that if the trade was regulated the users could get their supply through the NHS thus eliminating the need for them to get involved in criminality.

In calling for the crafting of a road map to develop the fledgling ganja industry, Delano Seiveright, a director of the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force, has renewed his warning that foot-dragging could result in the loss of potential economic advantages.

Speaking at the 'Imagine Jamaica: Unlimited Possibilities A Brand Jamaica Symposium' at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Seiveright suggested that the economic benefits of liberalising the ganja industry were huge.

"We can, in very short order, reassert our position as the world capital of ganja and move to spreading the obvious economic benefits across the board."

Sandra Bland was high on marijuana — while she was incarcerated in the Texas jail where she eventually died — according to Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis. Mathis reportedly said in a text message to an attorney representing the Bland family that “[l]ooking at the autopsy results and toxicology, it appears she swallowed a large quantity of marijuana or smoked it in the jail.”

If true, this allegation suggests that security in this jail facility is extraordinarily lax. How does marijuana make its way to an incarcerated individual in the first place? And how does that individual manage to smoke or eat a “large quantity” of it without jail officials noticing?

MCC’s campaign finance disclosure reveals a campaign without contributors; MRC’s website has been taken down; the MILegalize group seems like the last man standing in the three-way race to legalize marijuana in Michigan

Last November, 58 percent of Florida voters supported Amendment 2, which would have made medical marijuana legal in Florida. Even though the majority of voters were in favor of the amendment, it wasn't enough to pass. The vote was just two points shy of the 60 percent threshold.

But the loss didn't dissuade United For Care, the group behind the push. In January, the group submitted a new constitutional amendment. They spent the last seven months gathering petition signatures. Today, Ben Pollara, the group's campaign manager, announced that the group is sending 100,000 (almost 30,000 more than necessary) signatures to the Supreme Court to review the language. 

Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is speaking out in support of a controversial medical marijuana store in Winnipeg.

During a stop in the city on Wednesday, Trudeau said marijuana storefronts like "Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters," owned by Glenn Price, should be allowed to operate.

At a Liberal campaign office just blocks away from the shop, Trudeau reiterated his pledge to legalize marijuana if elected.

He said by licensing and restricting the sale, it keeps the drugs out of the hands of kids and criminals.

Police closed down Price's store last week, saying he is not a licensed producer so it's illegal for him to sell medical marijuana.

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.