I am always amazed at how much people from all walks of life inquire about my life as a news reporter in Los Angeles...

I often feel that most of the time, the minute forty five segment that makes air along with my liveshot does not represent even "half the story" I experience out there...

I can relate with others who see what I do and think its all fabulous, all the time, so you want to know "how?", "where?", "what?" because on the outside it appears to be such...but really, allow me to remind thee, it is not always a bed of roses in tv news...

Having said that, I love what I do, I love people, I am soo fascinated by human behavior, human emotions, and how it all comes together as each and every one of us pushes through our daily grind...you can learn soo much from strangers, I feel blessed to have that opportunity.

Therefore, today I am starting a new theme here...I will call it: "Behind the Scenes"...I want you to experience and discuss the daily characters and issues I encounter everyday that are truly enlightening!

So today,  I had dinner with a city prosecutor who shall remain nameless...and let me say this, this person is a character!! We shall refer to this individual as "this person"...a very fascinating individual, I mean this  person could have easily chosen a career in stand up comedy and would have made a killing!  No pun intended of course :)  But hear me out, this person is soo right, he/she says part of the key to success in trial work is number one: knowing how to study people!  With that knowledge, this person mastered the art of selecting the right jurors, and when to attack the defendant on the stand or not.  And get this, I'm told, defendants usually love this person, yep, even as they are whisked away to the slammer after a long trial.  Who knew??

Well, now I want to let you in on this intriguing discussion we had on the "war on drugs" in the US.  This person, a DA,  made it clear the established "formula" to fight drugs is a total failure.  This person says, look, probably every DA in the nation will tell you THEY have the solution, but this person insists, that is NOT the case, just look at our prisons! This person sure surprised me when the well groomed, high dollar suit blurted out "why not legalize marijuana!"!  Yes, folks this person said it...the point made was "does marijuana cause people to get violent, it might just mean more people will walk around with a big smile on their face?" Yes, very controversial remarks, but I can tell you this, this person spoke in a moment of total self authenticity without any filters at work...a very unusual ocurrence for DA's, if I may say, especially around a reporter.

(heck, I'm glad they are comfortable to be themselves around me, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I'm just here to listen)

So, lets talk about this...does this individual who has created a career putting drug offenders behind bars have a point? What do you think??? Remember, its a conversation, so its ok for all writers to "agree to disagree". That my friends, is what some folks call problem solving... so say it, what do you think???

Thanks!