As more states, including Virginia and New York, continue to legalize marijuana, an overwhelming share of U.S. adults (91%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use (60%) or that it should be legal for medical use only (31%). Fewer than one-in-ten (8%) say marijuana should not be legal for use by adults. The new survey, conducted by Pew Research Center from April 5-11, 2021, comes as congressional Democrats consider legislation that would decriminalize marijuana nationally. Views of marijuana legalization have changed very little since 2019. From 2000 to 2019, the share of Americans saying marijuana should be legal more than doubled.

During New York’s worst health crisis in a lifetime, a deadline came up to put forth a provision to legalize adult-use marijuana. With other concerns to address, lawmakers are passing on legalization. Advocates are understanding of this. “While legalizing cannabis is necessary to reduce the decades of unjust, racist targeting of communities of color in New York, our state faces a public health crisis right now and efforts to contain COVID-19 demand legislators’ full attention,” said Kassandra Frederique of the Drug Policy Alliance. The new year started with high hopes that the state would finally pass a legalization bill. Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) placed it among his top priorities in his State of the State address in January, after convening a meeting with other Northeast governors.

El presidente, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, mencionó que se ampliará el programa de bienestar “Sembrando vida” en la sierra de Guerrero con el propósito de erradicar los cultivos de amapola y marihuana para sustituirlos por otras alternativas de siembra. El mandatario no descartó que grupos delictivos insistirán en continuar con dichos sembradíos, sin embargo, advirtió que el Gobierno ya tiene conocimiento de los cultivos de coca en la sierra del estado e investigarán al respecto. “Decirles para los que andan mal que ya sabemos que están ahí en Guerrero experimentando con el cultivo de cocay ya estamos investigando sobre esto. Encontramos un plantío de coca en Atoyac”, apuntó. (Véase también: ¿Es cierto que hasta ahora hallaron plantíos de coca en Guerrero?)

The Drug Committee in Thailand approved three draft legislations for amnesty. If these drafts become law, even possessors of cannabis, who are not patients or research units, will be pardoned. “We have already passed the draft regulations, but there are still many steps left. The Food and Drug Administration [FDA] will have to put these drafts through public hearings and gather opinions for further review,” FDA secretary-general Tares Krassanairawiwong said. The approved drafts included three announcements designed to grant amnesty to government agencies, private firms, community enterprises, practitioners of traditional Thai medicine, research organisations, patients and everybody else who use and possess cannabis.

Amsterdam finds the national experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation unfeasible and "risky to public order". The municipality would like to participate in the experiment, but only with other rules, says mayor Femke Halsema. Six to ten municipalities can participate in the experiment, which would allow cannabis cultivation for coffeeshops for four years. Too few types of cannabis and hashish will be allowed in the experiment and that will stimulate street dealing. The city can also only participate if all 166 coffeeshops in the municipality take part. "They'll have to dispose of their illegal suppliers in one go", Halsema wrote. "It is not imaginary that problems with 'the back door' will arise at that moment." (See also: Amsterdam mayor criticises regulated cannabis cultivation plan)

Ministers should sanction experiments to legally grow marijuana under licence and the city should make preparations to do so, according to a majority of Amsterdam city councillors. All VVD councillors in the city back the move. The VVD's position in Amsterdam is notable because VVD justice minister Ivo Opstelten has said repeatedly he does not favour regulated production and refused to sanction experiments. Meanwhile, the upper house of parliament came a step nearer to approving legislation which will make people who have helped illegal marijuana growers guilty of a criminal act. (See also: Coffeeshops want say in Amsterdam marijuana production)

Amsterdam council will vote against a proposal to enforce a national ban against tourists in coffeeshops, where cannabis is smoked. Mayor Femke Halsema formally proposed temporarily banning non-residents from the city’s 166 coffeeshops in April, in a 13-page briefing. This is already a national law, enforced in some places, but Amsterdam had negotiated a formal exemption. At a long debate in the city hall, the majority of parties were against the policy. Although the mayor, who is responsible for law and order, does not need to have the support of the elected council, she has said that she wants this before enforcing a national law that already exists, the so-called i-criterium. (See also: Amsterdam considers banning ‘cannabis tourists’ from its coffee shops)

El alcalde de Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, dijo que los turistas extranjeros que visitan esa capital holandesa podrán también acceder a los 220 "coffeeshops" en los que se vende marihuana, informa el diario Volkskrant. Van der Laan señaló que según el acuerdo de gobierno al que han llegado en el consistorio el criterio de residencia para adquirir esa droga en los establecimientos se mantendrá "técnicamente", pero "su aplicación se realizará en concertación con las municipios afectados". (Véase también: ¿Van a abolir el carnet de cannabis? En realidad, no)

El Ayuntamiento de la capital de Países Bajos, Ámsterdam, ha anunciado un plan para plantar cara a los efectos negativos del turismo de masas: prohibir el consumo de marihuana en el casco antiguo de la ciudad, en el que se incluye el Barrio Rojo, a partir de mediados de mayo. El Ayuntamiento ha asegurado que "los vecinos del casco antiguo sufren mucho por el turismo de masas y el abuso de alcohol y drogas en las calles". Según el consistorio, esto provoca que los vecinos no puedan dormir bien y que el vecindario se vuelva "inhabitable". Si las molestias no disminuyen lo suficiente, las autoridades han avisado que investigarán si pueden "prohibir fumar en las terrazas de los coffee shops". 

End 2014 Van der Laan told the council to examine possibilities for regulated cannabis cultivation. The municipality would appoint companies to legally grow cannabis. In theory this should insure the quality of the cannabis and reduce illegal crops. The mayor has now come to the conclusion that within the framework of the law in the Netherlands it is currently impossible to experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation.

El Ayuntamiento de Amsterdam va a prohibir el consumo de marihuana en los patios de los centros educativos y podría extender ese veto a otras áreas como parques, pero seguirá permitiendo a los turistas el uso de los populares coffeeshops. Así lo adelantó el alcalde Eberhard van der Laan que prevé que las escuelas puedan pedir la intervención de la Policía y la imposición de multas si descubren a estudiantes consumiendo cannabis en las instalaciones del centro.

La Alcaldía de Ámsterdam, respaldada por la Policía y la Fiscalía del distrito, comunicó su voluntad de prohibir a los turistas extranjeros el acceso a los “coffeeshops”, locales de venta y consumo de marihuana, debido al aumento de demanda de drogas blandas provocado por el “turismo del cannabis”. En una carta, la alcaldesa Femke Halsema consideró que se le debería prohibir la entrada a los "coffeeshops" a todos los que no sean residentes de Países Bajos porque el aumento de lo que ya se tilda como “los turistas del cannabis” ha contribuido de manera significativa a la gran demanda de drogas blandas en la capital neerlandesa.

Mayor Femke Halsema plans to go through with a ban on coffeeshops selling weed to tourists in Amsterdam, she said in a letter to the city council. According to her, the enforcement of the residents-only criterion is "necessary" for the municipality to get a grip on the coffeeshop market and "inseparable" from any relaxation of the cannabis policy, such as regulated cultivation or expanded trade stocks, Het Parool reports. Over three million foreign tourists visit coffeeshops in Amsterdam every year, making the capital's cannabis market uncontrollably large and a portal to serious crime. Some tourists may resort to street dealers, but research could not estimate how many.  (See also: Amsterdam mayor plans to press ahead with tourist cannabis cafe ban)

Amsterdam is exploring how to make cannabis less of a tourist attraction and, at the same time, crack down on the illegal supply chain, according to a briefing from mayor Femke Halsema. The city has published new research by Amsterdam’s statistics service on the extent to which young tourists are motivated to visit the Dutch capital by cannabis, window brothels and budget flights. It found that a large proportion would be less likely to come to Amsterdam if they had to pay to enter the red light district or if only local residents were allowed into cannabis cafes (coffeeshops). The city does not have any plans to ban foreign residents from coffee shops but is researching policies that could make them less attractive and reduce tourist nuisance. (See also: Amsterdam looks to bar foreign visitors from buying cannabis)

Amsterdam's mayor said he would formally ban students from smoking cannabis at school, making the city in the Netherlands the first to do so. Eberhard van der Laan's introduction of a law is the result of the country's drug policy. Under the "tolerance" principle, cannabis is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police cannot prosecute for possession of small amounts of the drug.

Smoking cannabis on the street in Amsterdam’s red light district will soon be illegal, the city council has announced, as part of a range of bylaws designed to deter tourist excesses and make life more bearable for despairing local people. With more than 18 million visitors thronging its narrow 17th-century streets last year, Amsterdam’s residents have long complained that the busiest parts of the city centre, including De Wallen – the red light district – were becoming unlivable. The council said in a statement that smoking joints in public in the inner city would be outlawed from mid-May, adding that it was prepared to consider extending the ban to the terraces of cannabis “coffeeshops” if necessary. (See also: Amsterdam bans smoking cannabis outdoors in the red light district)

Amsterdam has to participate in the national experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation. If the Dutch capital, with the largest coffeeshop market in the Netherlands, does not participate, the experiment will fail, mayor Femke Halsema said in a city council debate on the issue. Halsema previously wrote a letter to the government asking that the strict conditions for the experiment be adjusted for Amsterdam. The current conditions make it impossible for the capital to participate. The size of Amsterdam's cannabis market - with 166 coffeeshops - is a problem. The government determined that the experiment will cover all coffeeshops in participating municipalities. But with so many coffeeshops in Amsterdam, that is basically impossible.

Tourists can continue to use Amsterdam’s 220 cannabis cafes, even if they are not resident in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant quotes the capital’s mayor Eberhard van der Laan as saying. The new cabinet is pressing ahead with banning non-residents from the country's cannabis cafes, but says enforcing the ban will be carried out together with local councils, taking local policy into account. This means the city can take its own line.

After an only-in-the-Netherlands legal reverse, the city of Amsterdam will likely have to stub out the "no toking" signs it introduced in a crackdown on marijuana-smoking youth. The Dutch government's top legal adviser ruled that the city had no right to establish official zones where smoking weed is banned, since it's already theoretically illegal in the Netherlands. In practice, possession of small amounts of the drug is allowed, and it is sold openly in designated shops.

An Amsterdam coffeeshop which can trace its roots back to 1973 will open for the last time because of city rules preventing the sale of marijuana close to schools. Mellow Yellow, now on the Vijzelstraat, first opened in a squatted bakery on the Weesperzijde. It was named after the Donovan song Mellow Yellow, about smoking banana skins, and was ‘code for the fact you could buy weed there,’ founder Wernard Bruining told the Volkskrant. Bruining’s concept involved serving clients a cup of tea so they could then buy marijuana from the house dealer. This enabled him to get exploit a loophole in the law which allowed individuals to sell the soft drug. (See also: Why Amsterdam’s coffeeshops are closing)