I have a lot more sympathy for people addicted to drugs. I have never tried hard drugs, so before I couldn;t really relate to what it might be like. He does a g

I have a lot more sympathy for people addicted to drugs. I have never tried hard drugs, so before I couldn;t really relate to what it might be like. He does a great job of showing that instead of thinking of people as "junkies", they are sick. It's no different than having cancer or AIDs or something else. Drug addicts are really really sick people that can usually be fixed. The sympathy you have for someone with terminal cancer is the same sympathy for the guy you walk past asking you for a dollar with needle marks on his arm. The only difference is one is always self inflicted, the other may not be. He also changed my opinion about legalization. I was on the fence before but this book, combined with books about violence in Mexico since 2006 (60K+ dead) have just pushed me over the edge. Other countries/cities have experimented with "legalization" of hard drugs (Switzerland, Vancouver, Portugal, UK back in the 50s?) and it works. When people can buy their daily fix and are treated like humans instead of junkies they are able to change their lives around.