Things can change. DRCnet (The Drug Reform Coordination Network) has ongoing summit meetings in many different countries to change the current world laws with regards to legalizing drugs. As the laws relax in other countries, such as it has in the Netherlands, we can and will see things change here. Most countries are now seeing the United States as the bully that we are, and a lot of these countries are beginning to stand up against some of the policies that we have forced on them in the name of "freedom". Their legislators and leaders are beginning to see the harm that the war on drugs has caused to their own countries, and I just see it as a matter of time before policies change here, too. We as citizens need to tell our politicians what we want.

I wanted to also say that I am almost 50 years old. My parents are still alive. Back in the 60's and early 70's, I would hear them discussing the harms of drugs, the hippies, the Vietnam War, and remember my dad talking about "locking up everyone of them drug addicts!" Today, my parent's attitudes have done a complete 180 because they have lived through all of the legislation. They have seen firsthand the pain that families go through when a parent or child is locked up, and they have seen more harm caused by the current laws than by drug use itself.

As far as the harm caused by legalizing drugs, well, my opinion is that I would rather have my child be able to go down to the local health department to score his day's fix, then to go down to the local black market drug pusher on the corner for something that may or may not be poison (that is if he doesn't get shot first by the dealer who just wanted his money).