Tobacco, alcohol, processed foods and fossil fuels ‘kill 2.7m a year in Europe’

“In a groundbreaking report, the WHO said powerful industries were driving ill-health and premature death by using ‘misleading’ marketing and interfering in governments’ efforts to prevent killer diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.”

Brazil’s Supreme Court decriminalizes possession of marijuana for personal use

“The Supreme Court’s ruling has long been sought by activists and legal scholars in a country where the prison population has become the third largest in the world. Critics of current legislation say users caught with even small amounts of drugs are regularly convicted on trafficking charges and locked up in overcrowded jails, where they are forced to join prison gangs.”

California reaped $270M from marijuana tax last quarter. Where does $ go?

“So where does all this cannabis tax money go?

As Dallal said, it’s targeted for ‘good things’: State-funded projects like transportation initiatives, libraries, environmental cleanups, drug prevention, schools and universities.”

Marijuana was supposed to help Thailand. Why is the country planning to ban it again?

“Given the problems and the politics, even the former health minister who led the drive to decriminalize pot has grudgingly pledged his support for undoing that decision. ‘We can’t take a personal attitude towards this,’ Anutin, who has since joined the current government as interior minister, recently told local media. But making cannabis illegal again is unlikely to go down easily.”