Press Release: LEAP Reacts to Sheriffs' Lawsuit Against Colorado Marijuana Law

Contact: Darby Beck                                                                                          For Immediate Release:
 
darby.beck@leap.cc                                                                                                         March 5, 2015

415.823.5496

LEAP REACTS TO SHERIFFS’ LAWSUIT AGAINST COLORADO 

MARIJUANA LAW

 Refute Claims of Increased Burden on Police, Cite Public Safety Improvements

Today, sheriffs from Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas filed a lawsuit against Colorado’s

marijuana legalization law, Amendment 64. The officers claim the law is

unconstitutional, and that there is increased burden on law enforcement in neighboring

states.

Legalization advocates, including Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, point to the

many positive benefits of legalization, including that it has reduced the burden on law

enforcement within the state, citing the fact that marijuana possession arrests have

dropped 84% in Colorado since 2010. Colorado is also experiencing significant benefits,

including a decreasing unemployment rate, more than $50 million in tax revenue in FY

2014-15, and reduced rates of burglary and homicide.

“Legalizing marijuana has allowed police to focus on real crimes but taken away their

excuse for otherwise unjustified searches and seizures,” said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.),

executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of criminal justice

professionals opposed to the drug war. “Of course some law enforcement officers are

going to be upset about that. But I would ask those officers to think about why they

joined the force in the first place, why they risk their lives every day just to do their jobs.

I doubt many would say it’s to go after low-level drug offenders, whose lives will largely

be destroyed in the process and whose communities have come to see police as the

enemy. They would say they went into this job because they wanted to protect people, to

be heroes, and it’s about time they recognize that that’s the opposite of what they’re

doing when they defend current drug policy.”

Public safety remains at the forefront of the marijuana legalization debate, with

proponents citing that marijuana is easier for children to obtain where it is illegal, that

arrest and conviction records harm users and that marijuana prohibition causes police

officers to focus disproportionately on drug crimes, leaving violent crimes often

unsolved. For instance, in 2013 there were an estimated 400,000 rape kits in the U.S. that

had yet to be tested because drug testing of imprisoned defendants get prioritized over

other examinations. The U.S. spends about $51 billion dollars per year on drug

enforcement efforts, yet none of the intended goals of drug prohibition have been

attained.

Alaska, Washington and Oregon have also legalized recreational marijuana sales. Alaska

and Oregon regulators are in the process of writing the rules for how new marijuana

businesses will operate there, and Washington has joined Colorado as the second state to

safely and successfully sell marijuana legally.

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