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For now, recreational cannabis remains illegal, with possible penalties ranging from a $500 fine for possession to a 14-year jail term for its growth or distribution.

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MEXICO

Ravaged by drug war violence and corruption, Mexico decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana and other drugs in 2009. A series of Mexico Supreme Court rulings beginning in 2015 began laying the groundwork for marijuana legalization by holding that people should have the right to grow and distribute marijuana for personal use.

The country’s incoming interior minister, Olga Sanchez Cordero, participated in some of those rulings as a Supreme Court justice and has said she will push for broad marijuana legalization. She has the blessing of incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who won office in July and whose party controls both houses of Mexico’s Congress.

“Mexico is really the significant comer in this debate,” says John Walsh, of the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America. “It’s likely they’ll be debating legislation to regulate their national cannabis market next year.”

Former President Vicente Fox, who calls himself a soldier in the global campaign to legalize marijuana, earlier this year joined the board of directors of venerable cannabis publication High Times to advance his agenda.

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THE NETHERLANDS

Hoping to keep pot users away from dealers of harder drugs, the Netherlands in the late 1970s began allowing “coffee shops” to sell marijuana. The shops remain a popular attraction, especially in Amsterdam, but the drug remains illegal elsewhere in the country and purveyors have long complained about having to resort to the black market to obtain it since cultivation is outlawed. Critics say the system has allowed criminal organizations and money laundering to persist.