At last. A country that has the balls to stand up to the US on this issue. Our govt (left or right) is too gutless to just say NO to bully boy tactics of the US.
The US should stop trying to dictate to independent countries and threatening to stop aid if they don't get thier way .... sounds like a spoilt child to me.

Note to all readers from the US:

It's time for us all to stop being ignorant hypocrites and start being TRUE conservatives!

Pragmatic libertarians (minimal-statists) and "true" Conservatives agree that many, if not most, of society's problems are caused by government usurping choices that could better be made by individuals and that government is just about the worst way of doing almost anything. Where libertarianism normally parts company with "fake" conservatism is over moral issues. But a true conservative would have no problem with agreeing, that what people do with their own bodies, and especially in the privacy of their own home, should be supremely their business, and that anything else would entail ignoring the basic tenet of limited government.

Fake-Conservatism on the other hand has much in common with socialism; Both Leftists and Fake-Conservatives appear to harbor the belief that nature does not exist and that any human can be anything he wants to be, or can for the "greater good", be "re-educated" into being. Leftists therefore think little boys can be conditioned into preferring dolls over toy soldiers, and similarly Fake-conservatives believe that adults can be coerced into choosing alcohol over marijuana. A true conservative, just like a pragmatic libertarian, would immediately reject both ideas as nonsense.

If you support prohibition then you are NOT a conservative.
Conservative principles, quite clearly, ARE:

1) Limited, locally controlled government.
2) Individual liberty coupled with personal responsibility.
3) Free enterprise.
4) A strong national defense.
5) Fiscal responsibility.

Prohibition is actually an authoritarian War on the Constitution and all civic institutions of our great nation.

It's all about the market and cost/benefit analysis. Whether any particular drug is good, bad, or otherwise is irrelevant! As long as there is demand for any mind altering substance, there will be supply; the end! The only affect prohibiting it has is to drive the price up, increase the costs and profits, and where there is illegal profit to be made criminals and terrorists thrive.

The cost of criminalizing citizens who are using substances no more harmful than similar things that are perfectly legal like alcohol and tobacco, is not only hypocritical and futile, but also simply not worth the incredible damage it does.

Afghani farmers produce approx. 93% of the world's opium which is then, mostly, refined into street heroin then smuggled throughout Eastern and Western Europe.

Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of this very easily grown crop, which means that Prohibition is the "Goose that laid the golden egg" and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Only those opposed, or willing to ignore this fact, want things the way they are.

See: How opium profits the Taliban: http://tinyurl.com/3ytnxun

Prohibition provides America's sworn enemies with financial "aid" and tactical "comforts". The Constitution of the United States of America defines treason as:
"Article III / Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

Support for prohibition is therefor an act of treason against the Constitution, and a dire threat to the nation's civic institutions.

The Founding Fathers were not social conservatives who believed that citizens should be subordinate to any particular narrow religious moral order. That is what the whole concept of unalienable individual rights means, and sumptuary laws, especially in the form of prohibition, were something they continually warned about.

It’s time for us all to wise up and help curtail the dangerous expansions of federal police powers, the encroachments on individual liberties, and the increasing government expenditure devoted to enforcing the unworkable and dangerous policy of drug prohibition.

To support prohibition you have to be either a socialist, ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt.

* The US national debt has increased at an average rate of $3,000,000000 per day since 2006.
* The unemployment rate has increased by 7300 per day since 2008.
* The loss of manufacturing jobs has been 1400 per day since 2006.
* Without the legalized regulation of opium products Afghanistan will continue to be a bottomless pit in which to throw countless billions of tax dollars and wasted American lives.
* The hopeless situation in Afghanistan is helping to destabilize it's neighbor, Pakistan, which is a country with nuclear weapons.
* The mayhem in Mexico has deteriorated so badly that it’s bordering on farcical.

There is nothing conservative about prohibition, which enlists the most centralized state power in displacement of domestic and community roles. There is everything authoritarian and subversive about this policy which has incinerated American traditions such as Freedom and Federalism with its puritanical flames. Any person seeking to insure and not further compromise the safety of their family and of their neighbors must not only repudiate prohibition but help spearhead its abolition.

We will always have adults who are too immature to responsibly deal with tobacco alcohol, heroin amphetamines, cocaine, various prescription drugs and even food. Our answer to them should always be: "Get a Nanny, and stop turning the government into one for the rest of us!"

Imagine the harm legal cannabis would cause if we had to quit arresting hundreds of thousands of citizens each year? Imagine the harm to society if cannabis were legal and hundreds of thousands of citizens could finally have an alternative to alcohol. Imagine less domestic violence, less general violence, less vomiting and slurred speech, less blackouts, less stupidity and vulgarity, no overdose deaths. I can imagine that if we, as a society, can tolerate the many, many evils of alcohol then we can also imagine tolerating cannabis, which in reality, we already are. Let me imagine that we can also tolerate cannabis without the forced entry, arresting, fining, jailing, seizure, forfieture and forced rehab part. For a substance that has never killed anyone and is far less addictive than booze I fail to buy into the fear mongering

Well done to the wonderful Marinas Islands! You are a small nation but today you are the biggest Daddy of them all! You have, at long last, redressed the balance! I can imagine the your Islands will become very wealthy very quickly as your tourism is about to explode!

I have only 2 questions:

1) How do I obtain a valid residential Visa (or can I apply for refugee status as I wish to flee the persecution of my home country in the UK, a country stuck permanently in the dark ages and one which lacks the foresight that the Marinas have demonstrated.)

2) Can I buy some beach side property and start up a coffee shop / restaurant?

Please note, these are serious questions to which I would like an answer. I would leave the UK in a heart beat if I could live my life in freedom in the Marinas.

Peace, ONE LOVE and respect to my fellow brothers in the Marinas! Hearing this news has truly made my day!

i am a citizen of the USA, and i applaud you all for doing the right thing. many governments will be watching you very closely, you are now the world leaders in this on going debate.

the war on marijuana in the USA is a complete and total failure, and marijuana laws have caused more harm to people than marijuana itself ever could.

i cannot think of the proper words to describe how proud i am of the people and elected officials of The Marianas Islands.

bottom line: "you guys rock" :)

I am a Canadian and the Stephen Harper led Conservative government is trying to pass even harsher U.S. style mandatory minimum laws regarding cannabis, throwing people in jail for baking pot brownies and 3+ more friends passing a joint is considered drug trafficking by organized crime. (Canadians: Get Up! Stand Up! ~ http://maryjanecannabian.blogspot.com/2009/06/get-up-stand-up.html )

I applaud The Marianas Islands for being brave and doing the smart, right, sensible, logical thing! Making criminals out of otherwise law abiding citizens for what they choose to ingest is criminal in itself. Prohibition has failed, it is time for all nations to repeal draconian herb laws and let people be truly free!

That's just like our country to threaten smaller countries financially to try to get its way. "Oh if you're doing something we don't approve of, We'll cut your funding. If we can't rule you, we'll ruin you." I'd tell america to screw off too.

Let's see now...if they keep a wasteful and ultimately detrimental cannabis/hemp prohibition in place, they get $10 million from the USA, but if they repeal prohibition and let their own people do as they please, restart cannabis/hemp industries, while the US maintains their prohibitionary debacle, prices will remain stable, and they'll be able to export more than enough cannabis to offset the "loss" of 10 million in "foreign aid" that doesn't really help them much anyway, while saving millions more by simply stopping the waste in hunting down non-violent "plant matter possessors."

Hmmmmm...if YOU were a rational, intelligent being, which option would YOU choose? Remain a slave to other countries' policies, or build your own economy and stop wasting money just because a foreign government wants to contonue to plunder their own people?

Pretty obvious, really...it's time to Overgrow The World!

yay i wanna move there so im not a criminal now
shame on u America the hemp rope thing is over let us smoke for god sake
i really hope new zealand grows a pair and stops making people like me criminals in our own home follow suit legalize and watch the money come in
shit i think if it happened id take up farming lol least in my backyard
oh suddenly my money is not going to gangs anymore that would be great.
peace