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This week, Germany’s health minister announced that medicinal cannabis will be made legal early in 2017. The German cabinet approved a measure that will provide seriously ill patients the ability to use medical marijuana if prescribed by a doctor, CNN reports.

This isn’t tantamount to full-on recreational legalization, of course, with Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe making it clear that the drug will only be available in pharmacies with a prescription, as it is “not an inoffensive substance.”

While North and South America move forward with medical marijuana legislation, the UK trundles on and refuses to even properly discuss the matter in Parliament. Twenty-four states in America have legal medical marijuana programs, and a few South American nations have followed suit. Cannabis is used to treat the symptoms of a variety of illnesses, including glaucoma and cancer, where the drug helps with the sickness associated with chemotherapy.

Angela Merkel toking the ‘erb. Image via Tobias Kleinschmidt