As a former police accountability advocate, I'm reminded that plenty has changed since ending marijuana prohibition in our state. Police are now forced to change their ways and simply focus on whether or not there is imminent public safety harm due to marijuana use.

The same condition holds for hard drugs. Media accounts focus on users who experience bad outcomes, since these are dramatic or newsworthy. Yet millions risk arrest, elevated prices, impurities, and the vagaries of black markets to purchase these goods, suggesting people do derive benefits from use.

In a society that legalizes drugs, users face only the negatives of use.