LEGALIZING POT WOULD MAKE COLORADO SAFER

Consider this a front-line report from Colorado's War on Marijuana. As
a 36-year veteran of the Denver Police Department, I'm joining many of
my fellow law enforcement officials to say that the battle is being lost.

Our combined efforts to stop marijuana use have not only failed, but
they've actually made Colorado communities more dangerous, not less,
and at a tremendous expense in lives and dollars.

Unless we change strategies, drug use won't be reduced, respect for
the law will continue to erode, and untold numbers of Coloradans'
lives will be ruined - all at an ever-increasing cost.

While elected officials are reluctant to act, Coloradans are taking
the issue into their own hands, forcing much-needed change at the
ballot box next year.

Since Richard Nixon declared a joint federal-state-local War on Drugs
in 1971, we've pursued two strategies: interdiction (seizing the drugs
to choke off supply) and prosecution of users (to discourage demand).

Pursuing those strategies, my fellow officers arrested 12,358
otherwise law-abiding Coloradans in 2007. Almost all these arrests, 94
percent, were for simple possession (as opposed to sale) of marijuana.

Although we don't have specific figures for the fiscal cost to
Colorado taxpayers, we know that nationwide, enforcing marijuana laws
costs taxpayers roughly $8 billion every year.

Pot prohibition adds to Americans' increasing disregard for the law,
and any patrolman can tell you how widespread - and dangerous - this
lack of respect has become.

Just as with prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, our efforts have
created a criminal class that reaps billions of dollars satisfying
America's steady appetite for marijuana.

Since arrests and seizures haven't worked, let's try the only approach
left: restrict the possession and sale of marijuana to adults age 21
and above and set up a system to regulate and tax it, just like alcohol.

A measure is likely to appear on the November 2012 ballot that would
do just that, making Colorado the first state in the nation sensible
enough to face the facts of marijuana prohibition and pursue a better
approach.

Under the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012, marijuana
prohibition will be repealed: adult Coloradans will be able to
purchase and possess limited amounts of marijuana for their own
private use.

Instead of permitting criminal gangs and foreign drug cartels to
profit from street-level drug sales, this new law will enable local
and state government to take in revenue, just as they do with alcohol.

I know many of my brother and sister officers would welcome the chance
to end marijuana arrests and prosecutions and focus instead on what's
really important: fighting crime and making our streets, neighborhoods
and homes safer.

Not once in all my years as a Denver police officer - from patrolman
to lieutenant - did I ever meet a fellow officer who went into law
enforcement to arrest people for marijuana.

We can all help Colorado lead the way for a sensible drug policy by
signing one of the ballot petitions that are circulating now
throughout Colorado. Visit RegulateMarijuana.org.