Marijuana(October 18, 2010)

With marijuana on the ballot in four U.S. states this November,most prominently California\'s Proposition 19, which would fullylegalize the substance, the legalization of marijuana has become ahot topic of discussion in North America. If pot were to becomelegal in California, it is unclear how that would affect theongoing drug wars in neighboring Mexico - whether it wouldincrease, decrease, or have little effect on the widespreadviolence. What is clear is that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holderhas declared that the federal Justice Department will continue toprosecute those who use or distribute recreational marijuana,regardless of any change to state law. Collected here are photosfrom the past year of marijuana in the news, for both medicinal andrecreational purposes, and some of the legal entanglementsinvolved. (32 photos total)

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01.Tim Blakeley, manager of Sunset Junction medical marijuanadispensary, shows marijuana plant buds on May 11, 2010 in LosAngeles, California. The dispensary was one 25 plaintiffs in alawsuit against the city of Los Angeles that fought to stay openafter city prosecutors notified 439 medical marijuana dispensariesthat they had to shut down by June 7, 2010. (KevorkDjansezian/Getty Images)

02.Gardener Eli Rodriguez, a new Teamsters member, removes deadmatter and cleans up marijuana plants at Marjyn Investments, amarijuana growing operation in Oakland, California on Monday, Sept.20, 2010. The Teamsters added nearly 40 new members earlier thismonth by organizing the country\'s first group of unionizedmarijuana growers. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

03.A marijuana user rolls a joint during a 420 Day celebration on\"Hippie Hill\" in Golden Gate Park April 20, 2010 in San Francisco,California. April 20th has become a de facto holiday for marijuanaadvocates, with large gatherings and \"smoke outs\" in many parts ofthe United States. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

04.An unidentified man smokes marijuana at a demonstration in favorof legalizing marijuana in Mexico City, Mexico on Sunday Sept. 5,2010. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

05.An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people all exhale marijuanasmoke as the clock hit 4:20pm during a 420 event on Norlin Quad atthe University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado April 20, 2010.(REUTERS/Mark Leffingwell)

06.A medical-marijuana user holds a homegrown bud in Portland,Maine on Oct. 22, 2009. On Friday, July 9, 2010, the winningapplications for Maine\'s medical marijuana dispensaries wereannounced by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. (APPhoto/Robert F. Bukaty)

07.Marijuana salesperson Marissa Dodd (left) bags up a sale for acustomer at Dr. Reefer\'s marijuana dispensary April 20, 2010 at theUniversity of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Colorado, one of 14states to allow use of medical marijuana, has experienced anexplosion in marijuana dispensaries, trade shows and relatedbusinesses in the last year as marijuana use becomes moremainstream here. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

08.A client enters Sunset Junction medical marijuana dispensary onMay 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevork Djansezian/GettyImages)

09.Billings Police and Fire Departmentsinvestigate the scene of a firebomb that was thrown through thefront door of Montana Therapeutics, a medical marijuana store earlyon Monday, May 10, 2010 in Billings, Montana. The fire was quicklyput out and Billings police were investigating. On September 28th,2010, the Billings City Council voted to extend for a year itsmoratorium on any new medical marijuana businesses. The city hasissued more than 80 existing business licenses for the stores. (APPhoto/Billings Gazette, Billings Gazette)

10.A man is arrested by Aspen police in the lobby of the hotelholding the Cannabis Crown 2010 expo April 18, 2010 in Aspen,Colorado. The man was detained by hotel security after carrying alarge jar of marijuana out of the marijuana trade show in thebasement event space downstairs. Aspen police then found the manhas no medical marijuana license and was also carrying a set ofbrass knuckles, which are illegal in Colorado. The marijuana hecarried was confiscated and destroyed, according to police. (ChrisHondros/Getty Images)

11.A soldier pulls marijuana plants up in an illegal plantation atthe Sierra de Juarez, in Tecate, northern Mexico on Tuesday, Sept.21, 2010. Authorities found three illegal plantations of marijuanaon Sept. 20 during air patrol operations. (AP Photo/GuillermoArias)

12.A soldier stands over an altar in a camp used by marijuanagrowers during a marijuana destruction operation in the Sierra deJuarez in Ensenada, Mexico on Thursday Sept. 30, 2010. According toArmy Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mujica, soldiers destroyed 180 acres ofmarijuana in the northern region of Mexico\'s Baja Californiapeninsula in 2010. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

13.Police are pictured with two of the 14 wild black bears thatwere guarding an illegal marijuana growing operation after a July30, 2010 raid on the property in the Christina Lake area insoutheastern British Columbia. Police told AFP the bears were feddog food to keep them nearby to deter drug thieves. But feedingwildlife is illegal in Canada, and following the raid authoritiessaid the bears might be killed because they could become dangerouswhen the feeding ended. That threat prompted thousands of peoplearound the world to sign petitions, and join a Facebook group, tosave the bears. Authorities in British Columbia ordered a reprieveon August 31, 2010 for some two dozen bears caught in a drug bust.(AFP/Getty Images)

14.A Mexican soldier arranges blocks of marijuana, weighing a totalof 46 tons, before they are incinerated at a military base in theborder city of Tijuana May 11, 2010. (REUTERS/Jorge Duenes)

15.A soldier walks through a cloud of smoke from burning marijuanaon an illegal plantation at the Sierra de Juarez, in Tecate,northern Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/GuillermoArias)

16.The slain body of a drug hitman is seen among branches after anoperation by Mexican soldiers at a ranch near the municipality ofSabinas Hidalgo, some 100 km away from Monterrey, Mexico on April27, 2010. The army freed sixteen people, including a woman and herson during an operation at a ranch used by hitmen as a safe house,according to local media. The army also seized machine guns,ammunition, four trucks and some 2 tons of marijuana. Two gunmendied during the operation. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)

17.A baby boy without a name, either abandoned or rescued fromdomestic or drug violence, rests in a crib at the Ciudad Juarezbranch of Mexico\'s DIF family development agency August 16, 2010.Neither Mexico\'s government nor the various independent groupsstudying organized crime keep track of the number of childrendubbed \"narco orphans,\" who have lost one or both parents to thedrug war, yet with poor education already holding back Mexico\'syouth, social workers worry about the impact on society of tens ofthousands of kids growing up emotionally traumatized. The sign onthe crib reads \"Male without name, (surname) Solis.\"(REUTERS/Claudia Daut)

18.Mexican soldiers stand in formation as 46 tons of marijuana isincinerated at a military base in the border city of Tijuana May11, 2010. (REUTERS/Jorge Duenes)

19.U.S. Marine Cpl. Jake Hoag of Bend, Oregon from India Battery,3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment questions a marijuana farmerwhile on patrol near Forward Operating Base (FOB) Zeebrugge onOctober 10, 2010 near Kajaki, Afghanistan. (Scott Olson/GettyImages)

20.Len Goodman poses among his marijuana plants near Santa Fe, NewMexico on Thursday, July 15, 2010. He is one of just 11 growersapproved by New Mexico to produce pot for all of the state\'s 2,000registered medical marijuana patients, and his customers routinelyexhaust his supply. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

21.Drew Brown, a vice president at Abundant Healing store (left),hands over a check to one of his marijuana suppliers on April 19,2010 in Fort Collins, Colorado. Abundant Healing is one ofColorado\'s many legal marijuana dispensaries, which sells marijuanato customers with a state-issued medical marijuana card. (ChrisHondros/Getty Images)

22.Douglas Hiatt throws up his arms as he talks about a signaturecampaign for an initiative to legalize marijuana for adults fallingshort Thursday, July 1, 2010, in Seattle, Washington. Hiatt, one ofthe campaign\'s leaders, said that the effort to get Initiative 1068on the ballot has fallen short by about 40,000-50,000 signatures ofabout 241,000 required. Initiative 1068 would have removed allstate penalties for marijuana possession, cultivation, use andsale. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

23.A police officer stands guard during a drug destruction inPanama City, Friday, Oct. 8, 2010. According to officials, some 4.7tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin seized by the police indifferent nationwide operations during the last month, wereincinerated. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

24.A man smokes marijuana from a pipe during the International Dayfor the Legalization of Marijuana in Medellin, AntioquiaDepartment, Colombia on May 8, 2010. (RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/GettyImages)(Photo Credit should Read /AFP/Getty Images)

25.Medical marijuana plants are pictured as they dry in the LosAngeles area on June 1, 2010. Some 440 medical marijuanadispensaries across Los Angeles were under orders to close on June7, 2010, nearly five months after city officials, worried that theshops were mushrooming out of control, voted to shut most of themdown. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

26.Dani Geen holds up 1.5 gram \"care packages\" of medical marijuanaat the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California on Aug. 3,2010, where, until recently, the center had a program that gave outfree weekly \"care packages\" to about 600 patients on unemploymentor pensions. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

27.Marijuana is harvested in Davenport, California on Tuesday, Oct.12, 2010. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

28.Nicholas Pouch uses a glass pipe to smoke medical marijuanaFriday, May 21, 2010, in his glass-blowing shop in Matlock,Washington. Pouch\'s use of marijuana is legal under state laws, butit has been a factor in his ongoing child-custody battle with themother of his two sons. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

29.Tim Blakeley, manager of Sunset Junction medical marijuanadispensary, shows a marijuana plant bud under a magnifying glass,reflecting the dispensary\'s overhead lights, on May 11, 2010 in LosAngeles, California. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

30.Crystal Guess speaks during a news conference to launch theWomen\'s Marijuana Movement in the State Capitol in downtown Denver,Colorado on May 6, 2010. Moms got tougher drunk-driving laws on thebooks and were directly responsible for passing and then repealingalcohol Prohibition. Now marijuana activists are trying to enlistthe nation\'s mothers in legalization efforts with a sales pitchthat pot is safer than booze. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

31.Lindsey Bradshaw, who is missing his spleen and kidney and partof his stomach, colon and pancreas uses a number of methods to helpwith pain, including medical marijuana, in Portland, Oregon.Graham, who takes his food through the tube attached to the bag atleft, says most of his days are spent inside his home in southeastPortland where he can quickly access his painkillers and keep tabson his health. Photo taken on July 21, 2010. (AP Photo/TheOregonian, Jamie Francis)

32.Marijuana plants lay in a pile before being burned by the armyin the Sierra de Juarez in Ensenada, Mexico on Thursday Sept. 30,2010. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)