About half the cannabis sold in the Netherlands just got banned -- because it's too good. According to the Dutch government, that joint of White Widow you're smoking is just as bad as heroin or meth. And if they catch you smoking weed they think is "too good," they can throw you into drug rehab for it.

The Dutch have been a source of both exhilaration and exasperation with their hard-to-pin-down cannabis policies for the past 40 years. Often held up as a model of tolerance by those in less-permissive countries, they actually have some serious perception problems of their own.

The decision to crack down on medical pot establishments in the Golden State was a collective decision by four U.S. attorneys in California and not the result of any directive from Washington, according to a spokesman for California-based U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.

Federal prosecutors launched an attack on medical marijuana shop owners last week, vowing to shutter state-licensed marijuana dispensaries regulated by local governments and threatening landlords with property seizures.

In endorsing such a debate, Obama went further than any president has since the start of the war on drugs, which can be traced back at least to President Richard Nixon, but more realistically to the early 20th century, when the federal government began criminalizing drugs that had long been legal.

The changes were contained in a 99-page list of draft rules posted online Thursday by Colorado regulators crafting the nation's most extensive rules for commercial marijuana sales.

The state revenue department is expected to adopt the new rules early next year and does not need approval by lawmakers.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said Thursday authorities seized the Ecstasy worth more than $2.8 million at a house in Chamblee in northeast Atlanta.

Perhaps most revealing is the cooperation between the United States and Cuba over trafficking through Jamaica. A cable from August 2009 talks about multiple contacts between the U.S. Coast Guard and Cuban Interior Ministry.

The programme – the UN Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Programme for West Africa 2010-2014 – covers 16 countries and will respond to the needs of West African countries on the principle of shared responsibility, addressing the transcontinental nature of the challenge, in particular, the transatlantic route. It will focus on peace building, security sector reform, and national and regional institution- and capacity-building; as well as strengthening action in the areas of organized crime, trafficking and terrorism, justice and integrity, drug prevention and health, and awareness raising and research.

"There's the Tea Party," Nelson wrote in an email. “How about the Teapot Party? Our motto: We lean a little to the left.”

And the platform? "Tax it, regulate it and legalize it," of course. After all, "Why should the drug lords make all the money? Thousands of lives will be saved."

More than 44,0000 people have since joined the Nelson-inspired Teapot Party on Facebook. And supporters are hosting their first in-person events later this month, with the goal of fielding a slate of pro-pot candidates nationwide.