I understand that Canada and Britain are close to allowing "medical pot smoking" if it hasn't actually been done. The US will probably follow in a decade or so; it's just too hard to police, the case for its harm in and of itself as compared to permitted things like tobacco is nebulous at best, and the financial strain on the Treasury of combating terrorists will make cost cutting by curtailing the Federal pot pursuit more attractive.
Recently Canada made the medical use of marijuana legal, but it is almost impossible to get it anyway. They are immersed in a government run system and the government is not about to start growing medical marijuana in Canada.
Britain on the other hand just changed the rules concerning when they make an arrest for pot possession. The change has effectively made the possession of small amounts of pot virtually legal, although not technically legal. This is much like the way the Netherlands treats pot.