World - and Australia - move closer to cannabis decriminalisation

Despite the lamentable outcome of the NZ cannabis legalisation referendum that saw the usually progressive nation vote in a slight majority against making the plant legal for recreational use, the ongoing international trend towards cannabis use becoming a legal practice continues.

On 2 December, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) removed cannabis from schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, where it had been classed as one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet - with no redeeming medicinal features - along with heroin.

While on 4 December, the US House of Representatives voted to decriminalise cannabis at the federal level, which, if passed by the Senate, would have removed it from the schedule of controlled substances and permit it's taxation and sale, as is already the case in many of the nation's states.