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Retired Denver cop backs legal drugs

Nina Sparano kwgn.com

DENVER– The full legalization of marijuana has been in the Colorado
spotlight for some time. Now former members of Colorado law enforcement are
stepping out in the public to turn heads and get the issue on the 2012
ballot.

“We should be teaching our kids to make intelligent decisions and
stop wasting our time with this good drug bad drug crap,” says Leonard Freiling,
a former Lafayette Judge.

“We’re against the entire war on drugs and
marijuana is the biggest part of that,” says Tony Ryan, a retired Denver Police
Lieutenant.

Both Freiling and Ryan are members of LEAP; Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition. They spent part of Wednesday afternoon collecting signatures in
front of the Denver City and County building, hoping to put the full
legalization of marijuana on the 2012 ballot.

“If you legalize it and
regulate it then you don’t have the black market anymore it gets rid of all of
that violence everybody is worried about,” adds Tony Ryan. “Any step in the
right direction to ending prohibition so we can actually regulate and control
drugs as opposed to making it illegal because when it’s illegal you can do
nothing else accept arrest people and put them in jail.”

If approved, the
measure would make marijuana legal for adults over the age of 21.

“My
biggest concern on legalizing marijuana is the impact it’s going to have on
kids,” says Don Quick, Adams County District Attorney. He says years of research
contradicts marijuana advocates.

“I think they’re using their own
interests and anecdotal knowledge to say the legalization won’t impact the
community in a bad way and the research is 180 degrees in the opposite
direction.”

Quick also says legalizing drugs is not something Colorado
has a whole will likely support.

“There is a statewide proclamation where
hundreds of officers and prosecutors are signing their opposition. The fact that
three [former law enforcement members] think pot should be legalized, I don’t
think is going to have a big impact.”

The marijuana advocates need to
collect 86,000 valid signatures by January 6th to be on the 2012
ballot. So far they have collected about 10,000 before their deadline on January
6th.

1 COMMENT

  1. I do believe it has its ups and downs. Some ups being taxation and regulation. The income of tax on the sale of marijuana would supplement our economy greatly and we can regulate flow of the drug to stop illegal imports. Mexican drug distributors make tens of billions of dollars every year (if not more) off of the American populace and that money never hits our economy. After all of the debt crisis debates, stuff like this would really help us pay off some of that debt. Some of the bad would be establishing a reasonable law set that is fair and capable of maintaining safety of marijuana use. I agree with the 21 age limit but there is still a large probability of, like alcohol, underage use which would mean there would still be an illegal market for it. Also like alcohol there will be laws against smoking and driving because, besides many people’s beliefs and tolerances, it does affect the ability to operate machinery. One of the biggest problems would be the federal government. Correct me if i’m wrong, but I believe this article is referring to the legalization in Colorado. State and federal laws differ greatly. Some things may be legal in your state but still be illegal federally. It is legal conflicts like these that make a country wide, even state wide, legalization difficult. I could continue on about pros and cons because there is a great deal of them. But my overall opinion is in approval for the legalization and taxation (though I hate taxes) of marijuana. But hey, i’m over 1800 miles away from you guys so who am I to talk.

  2. Ask if your entire local,state,and federal governments are practicing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. If they are not ,then they are working for the corporations/cartel/terrorists whether they know it or not who started and practice serial prohibition violence/abuse against some people over some substances. Let them know that if they are not with LEAP they are ordered to surrender because immunity is no longer recognized as a vehicle for legalized serial violent offenders to fraudulently occupy the government with fraudulent cruel double standards they feebly try to pass off as laws.

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