LAW GROUP BACKS POT BILL

Retired Law Enforcement Officials Say Legalizing Pot Frees Up Police Resources

A group of retired law enforcement officers Monday endorsed a
proposition on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana in California.

Proposition 19 would allow adults aged 21 and older to have up to an
ounce of marijuana and grow a limited amount.

Legalizing the drug would allow government to better regulate its
use, raise public funds by taxing it and free up officers to focus on
more violent crimes, said the retired officers, judges and
prosecutors who comprise the group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

"Do you want to continue what has never worked?" former San Jose
Police Chief Joseph McNamara said of the current drug law. "In
attempting to enforce it, we've created lots of crime and illegal
drug gangs and put otherwise law-abiding people in jail."

The group's endorsement stands in sharp contrast with law enforcement
and government officials in Mendocino and Sonoma counties who have
said the law is poorly written and would force each local government
to come up with its own policies.

"Proposition 19 isn't a solution to our problems," Mendocino County
Sheriff Tom Allman said.

Opponents say an "opt in" policy meant to let local jurisdictions
create their own policies would actually create widespread confusion.

"The inconsistency the law presents to citizens isn't fair," Allman
said. "It would be possible for someone in Mendocino County to be
doing something legal, then they visit a friend in Lake County and
get pulled over and are found to be acting against the law."

In Sonoma County, the board of supervisors voted Aug. 24 to oppose
Proposition 19. Legalizing marijuana could breed more drug addiction
and create conflicts with the federal government, they said.

Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill said that legalizing marijuana in
California won't curb the violence associated with its sales because
the drug would still be illegal elsewhere.

"We could become a supplier for the world," he said.

If passed, the law would make it illegal to work or drive while high,
but as written, it doesn't address how to prove a person is high, Cogbill said.

Alcohol is easy to detect through blood tests and breathalizers, but
evidence of marijuana use lingers in the system, making it harder to
pinpoint when a person is impaired.

"You could say it's in your system but you weren't influenced by it
at the time," Cogbill said.

Members of the California Chief's Association and the Sonoma County
Law Enforcement Chief's Association also voted to oppose the proposed
law, said Santa Rosa Police Chief Tom Schwedhelm, a member of both groups.

As police chief, Schwedhelm hasn't taken a position on the
proposition, he said, and neither has the city council. But he
questions proponents' claim that legalizing marijuana would reduce
violent crime.

"We've investigated many instances of violence related to the
cultivation and sales of marijuana. Why are people arming themselves?
Some of these gardens are legal," Schwedhelm said.

Members of the former law enforcement group announced their support
at two events Monday, one in front of Oakland City Hall and another
in West Hollywood Park near Los Angeles.

Current law enforcement officials are obligated to support laws and
are ethically unable to oppose it in public, but retired officers can
speak out, said McNamara, who is now a research fellow at Stanford
University's Hoover Institute.

"We're pushing police into a war they didn't declare and they can't
win, and that comes at so much cost to taxpayers and society," he said.

Local officials say they don't share McNamara's view that officers
support legalization behind closed doors.

Said Cogbill of the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chief's
Association, "We were talking in a room by ourselves, and we all said
we could see problems with it."

Nationally, President Barack Obama's director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, spoke out against the
proposed law. Nine former Drug Enforcement Administration bosses
wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that legalizing the
drug threatens federal authority.