Green party’s presidential candidate Peter Sinkamba is promising voters to cut country’s dependency on mining – by growing and exporting marijuana.

For decades, Zambia has staked its economic fortunes on copper mining. But when voters in this southern African nation go to the polls in January to select a new president, at least one candidate will be looking to send that tradition up in smoke.

In an enormous glasshouse a few hours from London, there’s a powerful, unmistakable smell in the air: it’s the one that seems to cling to some surly teenagers and drifts around on the breeze at pop festivals. Here, 30,000 cannabis plants sway gently beneath giant fans and immensely bright lights. Only the remarkable uniformity of the plants – and the people walking round in lab coats – tells you the place isn’t some drug lord’s illicit cannabis factory.

A village in southwestern Iran has recently gained quite a reputation for its vibrant marijuana trade, which has earned it the nickname “Little Amsterdam”. But residents of Ghalat, which is about 40 kilometres from Shiraz, aren’t just reaping in the profits. This small village is now suffering from insecurity and violent clashes with the police. 

On the occasion the legislators have made the synthetic drug an illegal high, the manufacturers have merely changed the composition

The health authority Sundhedsstyrelsen is concerned that a new designer drug, 'spice', is gaining a foothold in Denmark as it is a legal high that can potentially kill users.

Over the last couple of years, the Danish poison hotline Giftlinjen i Danmark has received about 60 calls regarding people who have been poisoned by spice, a kind of synthetic cannabis, after buying it through mail order.

”The drugs we hear about at Giftlinjen have typically arrived from Sweden,” Kim Dalhoff, a doctor and professor at Giftlinjen, told Metroxpress newspaper.

Bern City Council adopted the creation of a working group to prepare a draft regulating consumption of cannabis in the federal city.

In Bern, it may soon be possible to smoke pot legally in places baptized "cannabis clubs". From Spain, this concept attracted many cities in Switzerland. In the image of the capital, Zurich, Basel, Geneva or Winterthur (ZH) want to test it. Thursday, Bern has taken a step in this direction, with the announcement of the creation of a working group to develop a pilot project.

In what could be a small but important change in the nation’s drug policies, a political agreement to distribute nearly one billion kroner in research funds sets aside money to study the medicinal effects of cannabis.

Despite numerous pushes by Copenhagen’s mayor Frank Jensen tolegalise cannabis in the capital and the booming business in Christiania’s cannabis market, Denmark has taken an official hardline stance on cannabis for both recreational and medicinal use.

Marijuana, the most commonly used illegal drug in America, is going mainstream. Now legal for recreational use in Colorado and Washington, pot seems poised for wider use, too: 21 states allow the possession and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. And legalization campaigns are underway in Oregon, California and even Alaska.

But just how much do you know about the wacky weed and its odd effects? How exactly does marijuana provide its high, and who discovered the effects of smoking the plant in the first place? Read on for some of the stranger facts about cannabis consumption.

1. Mythical origins

The hippie generation did not discover pot. But the drug's true origins remain a bit murky.

South Bend, Ind. — An influx of high-grade marijuana has made its way to northern Indiana from western states that have legalized recreational pot, contributing to a spike in local prices and raising concerns that it could add to black-market drug activity and the crime that comes along with it.

What do a Brooklyn-based fashion photographer, a math and science teacher from the Midwest, and a manager at a private Manhattan art gallery have in common? They all smoke weed.

Despite their varying job descriptions and salaries, methods of storage (stashed in special boxes bought for them by a significant other; in kitchen drawers; in designer makeup bags; even in the freezer), or means of getting high (from odorless vaporizers, edibles, and raw juice to a good, old fashioned joint), all of them are after the same result: to find relief, or "zen out," after a long day at work.