Somewhere in Argentina, a man is growing marijuana on his balcony, with the blessing of the Camara Federal, a court of appeals. They overturned his conviction, calling it unconstitutional.

In Italy, the Court of Cassation (think Supreme Court) overturned a local ruling that sentenced a reggae musician to 16 months in prison for possessing enough cannabis to roll 70 joints. They recognized the plant as a Rastafarian sacrament, and given the great quantity of weed smoked by members of this religion ... well, it seemed a plausible stash for personal consumption.

Austria does even better. There, 22 pounds can be understood as an amount for personal use - a public prosecutor recently dismissed a case against a man who'd harvested that much, in light of a new law decriminalizing cannabis for personal use, regardless of quantity.

The Swiss are voting on a similar initiative in late November.

So when Massachusettians (well, why not? It's better than calling them Massholes, a moniker I heard more than a few times living in Vermont last year) get to vote on a marijuana penalty reduction initiative on their ballots this November, let's hope they take their cues from our neighbors to the west and south, and not from the drug warmongers.