Drugs are available to those who want them. And where are those profits going? Into organized crime, [to criminals] who spend their profits on the destruction of whole societies.

My measure of success is to walk into a restaurant and hear a table debating drug policy. Once the public start the conversation, the politicians will join - that is when we can create real change.

[As in the case of] alcohol prohibition, illegality has driven organized crime, sent countless people to jail, and killed many thousands. Repression does not work.

In 1970, there were approximately 330,000 prisoners in the US. Today there are 2.3 million behind bars - more than any country in the history of the world. In 2009 alone there were 1.6 million drug-related arrests in the U.S. 1.3 million of these were for possession of drugs alone. Over half were related to marijuana. The forty-year war on drugs has cost $2.5 trillion.

Through social media, we can start a global conversation. This creates an army of advocates - the power really is in the hands of the viewers.

Drugs are available to those who want them. And where are those profits going? Into organized crime, [to criminals] who spend their profits on the destruction of whole societies.

Incarceration has become a business. It is in the interest of the police and the prisons to keep locking people up.