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Special Preview and Panel Discussion Planned Oct. 24 In Long Beach
As debates over widely divergent ballot measures to legalize marijuana heat up in Colorado, Oregon and Washington, a group of cops, judges and other law enforcement officers calling for an end to the war on drugs is holding a special sneak peek at Legalize It, a new documentary about Proposition 19, the 2010 California campaign to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), in conjunction with Willie Nelson’s Luck Films and award-winning filmmakers Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus, on October 214 will host a special screening and discussion panel of the film at the Art Theatre of Long Beach.
• Legalize It, a documentary about the Prop. 19 campaign
• Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7-10 p.m.
• Art Theatre of Long Beach, 2025 E. 4th Street, Long Beach
Tickets are available online and start at $10. There are also a number of sponsorship packages available. Please see the website or contact Diane Goldstein ([email protected] or telephone 714.232.3722) for more info.
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For the documentary, filmmakers followed members of the campaign for eight months, documenting the unlikely alliances that developed and the minor victories and setbacks of the first serious effort to legalize marijuana in the United States.
Legalize It is a sensitive and humorous behind-the-scenes look at a colorful campaign, the unlikely people running it and the disparate groups who both opposed and endorsed it. Several LEAP speakers appear in the film.
“In any battle, the people who go in first are going to take one hell of a beating,” said LEAP Executive Director Neill Franklin, a former Baltimore narcotics cop. “In the fight to legalize marijuana, the Prop 19 campaign folks were those people. If and when ballot measures in other states succeed, it will be because these folks cleared the way.”
After the film, a discussion panel including a former LAPD deputy chief who appears in the documentary, drug policy reform advocates, local dignitaries and one of the film’s producers will discuss the Prop 19 campaign as well as the current political outlook for similar efforts at reform.
See more about the film and its Long Beach screening at www.leap.cc/california-benefit/.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) represents police, prosecutors, judges, corrections officials and others who, after fighting on the front lines of the “war on drugs,” came to believe that prohibition only serves to worsen substance abuse and violence. More info at www.CopsSayLegalizeMarijuana.com.