Cop, Judge Collect Sigs For Colorado Cannabis Legalization

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Graphic: Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol


The effort to legalize marijuana in Colorado in 2012 is kicking into high gear. A former cop and a former judge will be among those collecting signatures in Denver on Wednesday.

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 cannabis 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.


Photo: LinkedIn
Former cop Tony Ryan: “Keeping marijuana illegal doesn’t do anything to reduce marijuana use”

​”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 (LEAP).
“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,” Ryan said.
“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,” said another member of LEAP, former Lafayette Judge Leonard Frieling.
“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,” Frieling said. “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 www.regulatemarijuana.org.

Photo: StoptheDrugWar.org
Former Judge Leonard Frieling: “It makes absolutely no sense to keep taking up space in our courtrooms and jails with people arrested for marijuana possession”


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