The end of the war on drugs will see the prison population in the US cut in half in 20 years. Colorado has already seen a radical reduction in arrests for drug offenses.
Unfortunately some negative aspects are so heavily ingrained in US culture and politics (incarceration and bondage being examples) it will take a long time for things to change. I have been reading about American history recently (mainly 1800's, gold rush etc) and some of it is very disturbing, almost dystopian. It has been very interesting to look at contemporary American culture with this in the back of my mind.
