Cannabis debate in Hong Kong not cut and dried

On a quiet beach, as night deepens, a group of campers kick back, relax … and commit a crime that could cost them a HK$1 million fine and seven years in prison. The campers are no Bill and Ted-style loveable losers. The Hollywood archetype of the stoner doesn't fit this group of Hong Kong twenty- and thirtysomethings. They move in a world full of fellow high-achievers and respectable contributors to society: teachers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, insurance salesmen, mothers, jewellery designers, who all like to toke.

They are the children of a society that preaches abstinence to all drugs - except alcohol of course. The ones who were told how drugs would ruin their lives, guilt-tripped about how drug problems could pull a family apart.

Knowing about the effects of drugs like ketamine, heroin and cocaine are enough to put most of them off, but the same does not hold true for cannabis.

Hong Kong law remains firm on cannabis, but a growing number of jurisdictions are going easier on the drug - from US states such as Colorado to nations including Uruguay - legalising the weed, even if only for "medicinal" purposes.

Twenty US states and the capital Washington DC, have legalised the medical use of marijuana, while five more have legislation in the works.

Colorado and Washington state have fully legalised the growing and consumption of the weed.

And an expanding body of research backs the view that, while by no means safe, marijuana should not be classed in the same category as harder drugs such as heroin and cocaine.