Growing up, I was told quite regularly by my father that “when we have a Prime Minister my age, we’ll change our laws on drugs” that I believed it. Then, the United Kingdom got David Cameron and the Union took an even more hilariously outdated approach to the marijuana industry in particular.

Thankfully, it looks like my father may be right in the years to come – just not for a while yet. Instead, it might be by the time that I am a father that things take a positive change. Why? Because it appears that it’s going to take the rise of millennials to make these changes a possibility.

Fighting back against countless years of battles against the legality of growing cannabis and spending too long scaring people with ridiculous stoner stereotypes, millennials are slowly winning. The recent decision of more US states to legalize various forms of marijuana usage is just another step in the right direction, as was the Scottish National Party in Scotland voting unanimously at the party conference to investigate decriminalization for medical use.

This comes after years of hard fighting from all generations to try and reduce the negativity of public opinion against the plant. It looks like millennials may need to finish a fight that is becoming softer with every passing day.

Much like resin, the resistance is crumbling. So, why are millennials the ones who should be leading the fight on cannabis reform?

Forming a new culture.

Teens sick of growing up with alcoholic relatives and seeing friends ruined by booze problems have decided enough is enough. From gamers medicating themselves using marijuana to help anxiety to a growing cannabis culture via vaporization, millennials are setting the tone for a healthier outlook on weed. It’s no longer big dirty bongs, and more clean glass vaporizers and cookies. Millennials are finally taking away the stigma of the “dirty, lazy stoner” that has invaded society for too long.

Breaking Party Dogma.

For years, western countries have lost the War on Drugs by listening to party politics. The more conservative, the more terrifying drugs became. Now, though, that looks to be changing. The SNP have already been mentioned as one British party with a previously heavy stance on drugs, slowly changing by membership. Millennials are doing the hard work in America, too. Pew Research recently found that well over half of both Republican and Democrat voters wanted to pursue legalization.

Getting Busy.

From the NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) group to Alaskan news anchor Charlo Greene quitting live on air to gain support, millennials are no longer just sticking to Reddit to talk about this stuff. They are taking the fight to the generations that make the decisions in an effective and noticeable manner.

With over 20 states now allowing medical usage of marijuana in the States and an ever-shifting sense of comfort regarding grass in Europe, the West looks finally set to wake up and see what they have been fighting for so long was a massive error.

It looks like millennials might be the group who finally help push this battle over the line.