Would you give me a (up to date!) list of nations (or Amercian
localities/states?) where marijuana is legal or tolerated.

Greetings Jdm1, 
It was a bit tough and I doubt a complete list can be found, but I
found many resources on marijuana mentioning some regions where it is
tolerated. Perhaps you could ask the administrators of these sites for
their knowledge on a complete list of marijuana-tolerant places.

Netherlands tops the list of tolerant countries. 

Where Is Marijuana Legal? Ask The Old Hippy - Drugs - Hippyland
http://www.hippy.com/php/article.php?sid=67
- Tolerant countries or places within them on pot include Australia,
Holland (The Netherlands), India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Morocco and
others. California has some level of tolerance.

http://www.growing-marijuana-seeds.com/legalization-of-marijuana.html
- UK, Portugal and Belgium decriminalized possession of marijuana. 

+ve Magazine December 2001 - Globe trotting
http://www.howsthat.co.uk/01/12/011202.htm
- Canada is only country that licenses growth and possession of
cannabis.

European Laws on Marijuana - A comparative table of how cannabis and
marijuana is treated by European* legal systems
http://www.rism.org/isg/dlp/ganja/background/EuropLaws.html

Tiscali Europe – has a table on European countries as well
http://europe.tiscali.co.uk/lifestyle/news/200204/10/canabis.html

Power Links. Saner Cannabis and Drug Policies Worldwide. Compilation
of many world press articles about drug war and reform. Many with
Green Party info. In chronological order. Search tools for more info.
Charts
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/power.htm
- Lists a lot of countries and gives their current status on marijuana
laws (through links to websites). This might be the closest to a
complete list on the Net.


Articles about legalization of Marijuana:

Legalization of marijuana from PureTHC.com
http://www.legalizationofmarijuana.com/

Marijuana Seeds (Cannabis Seeds) Growing Marijuana, Legal Highs,
Marijuana Growing
http://www.worldwideseeds.com/news.php

HealthCentral.com - Dr. Dean Edell - Banned Substances: Of Absinthe
and Marijuana - (4/1/1999)
http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanfulltexttopics.cfm?ID=8508&storytype=DeanTopics
- Marijuana is tolerated in Holland. 

About Marijuana, by Taima.org
http://www.taima.org/en/drug.htm

Future Drug policy in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc
http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/cohen.future.html


Based on I’ve observed in the search results, it appears that there is
an active movement for the legalization of marijuana, supported by
scientific reports about negligible effects, but it is being opposed
by the United States who seem to have a hidden vendetta in their
banning drugs, as reported in many conspiracy theory circles. The UN
is likely to be largely driven by US influence, so it also frowns on
pro-marijuana movements. So for now there is no country where
marijuana is legal, but there are many regions where it is tolerated.
Here in the Philippines, I know of an underground performer who is a
pot smoker, but being in the underground, I guess our country’s
generally intolerant.


Others:

Pop-up ad offering marijuana
http://64.40.108.190/b/bmo.php

News source for marijuana lovers:
http://www.marijuananews.com/

Google search terms used:
countries marijuana banned
countries marijuana legal
marijuana countries tolerated/tolerate
countries marijuana tolerate
cannabis countries tolerated/ tolerate
world marijuana tolerate

I hope this has been a most helpful answer. If you have any problem
with it, do please post a Request for Clarification and I shall
respond. Thank you.

Thanks, I figured that was kind of a hard question. I'm really just
trying to get a list of the major ones for some research.

Dear Techtor-ga. Sorry, but you are wrong about Australia being
"tolerant" about marijuana use. Our "Boys in Blue" come down hard on
anyone caught using it, or growing it. Our climate is perfect for it
and some quite substantial plots of it have been found growing in
State Forest and "A" class reserves. They are usually spotted by
Police light aircraft. Don`t use it myself as I gave up smokes years
ago, but am disappointed that the authorities refuse to allow it to be
used for medicinal purposes, such as pain relief in cancer. This is
just plain bloody minded and cruel to the sufferer/s. p.s. I`ve often
wondered about all the officers from the government departments who
stand around while big mountains of the stuff is burnt. Do they get
back to work or just take the rest of the day off???

Well, Australia has 2 states (ACT and South Australia) where marijuana
is decriminalised, and possessing it for personal use only attracts a
small fine, if for any reason they wished to prosecute. Queensland is
the opposite and has extremely harsh penalties.

It has started to become available for medicinal purposes in
Australia:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/20/1053196582046.html