Former Law Enforcers Say Marijuana Prohibition Has Failed and Harms Public Safety
DENVER, CO -- Police officers, judges and other criminal justice professionals who once enforced Colorado's marijuana prohibition laws are now helping to get an initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana onto the state's 2012 ballot. This Wednesday a former Denver cop and a former Lafayette judge will participate in a signature gathering drive to support the new initiative by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.
"During my 36 years as a Denver cop I arrested more people for marijuana than I care to remember, but it didn't amount to one bit of good for our citizens," said Tony Ryan, a former officer with the Denver Police Department and a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "Keeping marijuana illegal doesn't do anything to reduce marijuana use, but it does benefit the gangs and cartels who control the currently illegal marijuana trade."
WHO: Cop and judge who support legalizing marijuana
WHAT: Signature gathering effort for 2012 marijuana initiative
WHEN: Wednesday, August 3 at 1:00 PM MT
WHERE: In front of the Denver City and County building, 1437 Bannock St., Denver
Another member of LEAP, former Lafayette judge Leonard Frieling, added, "When so many murders, rapes and robberies go unsolved, it makes absolutely no sense to keep taking up space in our courtrooms and jails with people arrested for marijuana possession. And even on the distribution end, no matter how many drug cartels and gangs we bust, there are always more criminals willing to step up and risk their lives and freedom for a chance at lucrative black market profits. Our state's voters have the power to strike a bigger blow against organized crime with this initiative to treat marijuana like alcohol than any amount of skill and dedication in the criminal justice system ever can."
The anti-prohibition law enforcers are just a few members of a huge statewide effort to collect signatures to place the marijuana legalization initiative on next year's ballot. More information about the initiative and details about how to get involved in the signature gathering drive can be found at http://www.RegulateMarijuana.org.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) represents police, prosecutors, judges, prison wardens, federal agents and others who want to legalize and regulate marijuana after fighting on the front lines of the "war on drugs" and learning firsthand that prohibition is not only ineffective but causes violence and crime. More info is available at http://www.leap.cc.
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NEWS ADVISORY: August 2, 2011
CONTACT: Tom Angell, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - (202) 557-4979 or media@leap.cc
Mason Tvert, initiative proponent - (720) 255-4340 or mason@saferchoice.org
Congratulations for your effort to fight the drug addiction calamity.
ReplyDeleteIm portuguese, I have 39 years old and I can remember those times when I was young. I had friends in jail, others died by overdosis, others lived like zombies, not human beings. I had the luck to not be addictive but I allways had affraid to see my nephews and nices to be drug addictives.
Today I have 14 nephews and nices, the oldest is 30 years old and the youngster only 4 years old. Not each one has problems with drugs. Why? The roules changed and a lot of money was invested in prevention, education, treatment and so on. And that fight against the drugs are improving our youth lives and sparing a lot of lives. With better laws and better understanding how to fight the drugs problem.
I had a friend whos father was a police officer. This friend had problems with drugs and was jailed after a robbery. It was so hard for his father, that he left the job and never was the same happy man. This police officer was my neighbour and was allways a happy man, everyone liked him. Also he was a good police and a good father. But sudently all this changed. When he saw his youngster son in the jail. And he never understood how could be possible that. He felt that was all his fault and quit the job because took very serious his son mistake. It was two lives that drug destroyed in that happy house. How I miss my friend and his father!
I would like to give you my congratulations for your vision about the fight against the drugs. Its a hard fight but our youth, our children and our society deserves a better approach to fight the drugs calamity.
Kind regards.
Go Tony! Go Leonard! Go LEAP!
ReplyDeleteCop and Judge Campaign for Marijuana Legalization
ReplyDeleteShort link: http://YouTu.be/fwDy6dYgaQw
Great to see the smart people behind http://www.RegulateMarijuana.org are using Drupal as their CMS! :-) (Content Management System)
ReplyDelete