Smoking cannabis is getting more acceptable around the world. In 2003 Canada became the first country to allow medical marijuana; 19 US states allow medical use. Chile, Guatemala, Columbia and Ecuador have decriminalised personal use. Uruguay has legalised it. The Netherlands has always tolerated it. In America, Washington state and Colorado passed laws in November 2012 legalising the consumption and sale to adults over the age of 18. Both states set up regulatory systems to license and tax marijuana growers and retailers. There was only one problem though. Lawmakers weren't sure if the federal government would continue to prosecute cannabis crimes under federal statutes. Last month, all doubts were laid to rest when America's Department of Justice announced that the federal government would not prosecute marijuana crimes in those states. This is not all. Legalisation bills have been introduced in Maine and Rhode Island; Massachusetts and Vermont are in the process of discussing possible bills and there is talk of 'ballot initiatives' in California and Oregon. In April thousands smoked pot openly at a pro-marijuana concert-rally at Civic Centre Park in Denver. Change In Colorado, marijuana retail stores are expected to open as early as January 2014. People above the age of 21 can buy an ounce while non-residents will be able to purchase up to one quarter of an ounce. These are welcome winds of change. For far too long governments have wasted precious resources on criminalizing and fighting a soft drug that is used by millions - 162 million adults use marijuana once a year; 22.5 million use it everyday. In Sri Lanka, according to one estimate, one out of three people smoke the aromatic weed. It's taken time but realisation has finally seeped through that cannabis use is far less harmful than alcohol or tobacco consumption. For one, it is not a carcinogenic herb. Pot smokers do not indulge in socially disruptive behaviour which drinkers are frequently associated with. More importantly, governments have realized that in the absence of state control, the drug mafia runs the trade. By legalising and taxing it, the state earns huge amounts of revenue, which would otherwise have gone to drug cartels. It is also much better for the end user who will no longer be at the mercy of the mafia, which is least interested in quality control. The user can look forward to a clean safe high instead of inhaling harmful adulterated substances, which is what happens when the business is pushed underground. Governments now increasingly acknowledge the right of citizens to consume intoxicants as long as it's done in the privacy of their homes, and does not lead to public disorder. The plan is to take the drug business out of the hands of criminals where the money earned is often funneled into other dangerous activities like terrorism. The idea is also to keep citizens safe. Culture As The Economist reported recently, an interesting example is New Zealand. Conventional hard drugs are hard to come by here. Smugglers are not too interested in servicing the scant population of 4 million. It's not lucrative enough. Location is also a problem. New Zealand is an isolated island in the South Pacific. So what did the Kiwis do? They turned to manufacturing synthetic drugs. Until 2008, benzylpiperazine was the drug of choice. One-third of young New Zealand was hooked to it. When that was banned, people switched to synthetic cannabinoids. This year the government changed its policy. A Psychoactive Substances Regulatory Authority has been set up to monitor the sale of drugs. If a drug manufacturer can convince the Authority that its product is low risk it can get official approval. Licensed shops will be able to sell drugs openly to adults, though advertising is banned.In India too marijuana use has become acceptable amongst the middle class. Most paan shops in cities big and small now stock rolling papers, which is used to roll marijuana cigarettes. This wasn't the case earlier. Cannabis use has been part of Indian culture for centuries. Drinking bhang thandai is a traditional evening ritual in states like Rajasthan. And we all know what happens on Holi. Till the 1980s one could purchase cannabis from government-licensed shops. Acceptance But India's is a peculiar case. The US had been pushing for a global law against drugs since 1961. India resisted until 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi succumbed to American pressure and enacted the irrational and draconian Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The act failed to distinguish bhang and ganja from hazardous hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. It clubbed all of them together, the minimum punishment for violation being 10 years. The Act backfired. Drug dealers switched from selling ganja to selling smack and other hard drugs. This was so because while the risk was the same, the profits from selling smack were several times higher. Smack proliferated in Indian cities. Jeet Thayil writes with acuity about this period in his Booker-shortlisted novel Narcopolis. Middle class kids were doing it. Rickshaw pullers were doing it. The song 'So Gaya Ye Jahaan' from Tezaab became the smack anthem of a generation. There were anti-drug serials on Doordarshan. The irony was that this was a drug problem solely spawned by the Indian state. It was under American pressure that we criminalised what was culturally acceptable in our country. Now that America has changed its mind, maybe the time has come for us to do the same too.