By Kat Kanning

( Photos Anton Lee http://antonlee.redbubble.com )

It started in Keene, but has now spread to Manchester, Derry and soon, Hanover. People are coming together to defy drug laws and smoke marijuana in the park at 4:20 daily. In Keene's central square you'll see them puffing away every day, holding signs, speaking out against the war on drugs. Now, you'll also see this happening in Manchester's Veteran's Park. Though this has been occurring in front of the police, only two arrests have been made, one of which was dropped because the victim of police aggression was not smoking pot.

Why are all these people risking arrest to protest the drug laws? The drug laws have caused incalculable harm to the people. I often read stories of people, having nothing to do with drugs, with their doors busted open in the middle of the night, killed because police got the wrong address, such as the story of 88 year old Kathryn Johnston of Georgia. Police conducted a no-knock raid on the elderly woman's home. She shot at what she assumed were burglars. Police killed her.

Asset forfeiture laws in drug cases are used as the excuse to seize people's homes and property, making a bundle of money for government workers. 61 year old Donald Scott was killing when police raided his Malibu home – shot in front of his wife, because the police claimed he was growing marijuana. No marijuana was found. Police had come armed not only with guns, but with an appraisal of Scott's valuable Malibu property.

In New Hampshire, way more than half the number of people imprisoned are there on drug related charges – from possession, to selling, to parole violations involving drugs. Nationwide, “(n)early half a million people are behind bars on drug charges - more than all of western Europe (with a bigger population) incarcerates for all offenses.” according to the Drug Policy Alliance Network.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of current and ex-law enforcement officers who oppose the war on drugs, states that the amount of people who abuse drugs is consistent, whether or not it is legal or not. Basically, there will always be some people who get messed up on drugs. Prohibition doesn't change that.

Which, I wonder, is more harmful, letting people decide what they're going to put in their own bodies, or spending millions of dollars (of your money) to lock people up who haven't harmed anyone?