Sam;

If I could argue with you, I would. I am usually pretty good at finding SOMETHING to argue about, but I agree entirely. I do think that there are at least some reasons to feel a little optimism.

If I understand correctly, for instance, the E.U. decided that membership would require nations to maintain a certain maximum rate of violent crime, so many European nations are starting to realize that their billions of crime-fighting tax dollars could be better used elsewhere. It took someone to grab them and shake them and yell for a while, but now it seems that this common sense is becoming a contageous meme. We can only hope.

I think of it this way - we live in a Democracy, which is for all practical purposes an organized mob-rules social philosophy (with some checks and balances built in). When a Democracy works perfectly, when exactly everyone gets an equal share of the vote, the outcome of that vote is going to reflect the average person, including the average I.Q.

So change comes slowly. People need reasons to stop believing lies and hype, otherwise they won't. As long as being anti-drug is fashionable, the lies will be with us, the exo-toxic memes we surround ourselves with. As long as the public is tapping it's feet to it, it is not going to change. We need either another focus, or to wash drug use into the mainstream, and I mean AM radio type mainstream.

As soon as Britney Spears admits she shoots Oxy and her mom helps her with the needle, and she writes a popular, catchy song about it, then we'll see the first crack of hope.

When the weatherman says on T.V. "...and it's going to be a stormy one out there folks, it'd be a good day to curl up in front of the fireplace with a loved one and a joint" and not get fired, then progress will have been made.

Like when African-American people first started using the proverbial N word to describe themselves, or gays began using queer - we could take the wind out of their sails.

Those two particular examples are not really the same thing though, so let's knock on Formica that history repeats itself, and we get tired of wasting our money on fruitless nonsense.