Support for Proposition 19, the voter initiative on November’s ballot which would legalize, control and tax marijuana in California, continues to grow in the law enforcement community.
A group of police officers, judges, and prosecutors who support Prop 19 will hold simultaneous press conferences Monday, September 13 in front of Oakland City Hall and in West Hollywood Park near Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PDT to release a letter of endorsement by dozens of law enforcers across the state.
“At each step of my law enforcement career — from beat officer up to chief of police in two major American cities — I saw the futility of our marijuana prohibition laws,” said Joseph McNamara, former police chief in San Jose and in Kansas City, Mo.
“But our marijuana laws are much worse than ineffective; they waste valuable police resources and also create a lucrative black market that funds cartels and criminal gangs with billions of tax-free dollars,” said McNamara, who is now a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (
LEAP).