This Wednesday a former Denver cop and a former Lafayette judge will participate in a signature-gathering drive to support the new initiative by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol

Police officers, judges and other criminal justice professionals who once enforced Colorado’s marijuana prohibition laws are now helping to get an initiative to legalize and regulate cannabis onto the state’s 2012 ballot.

​”During my 36 years as a Denver cop I arrested more people for marijuana than I care to remember, but it didn’t amount to one bit of good for our citizens,” said Tony Ryan, a former officer with the Denver Police Department and a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)

“Keeping marijuana illegal doesn’t do anything to reduce marijuana use, but it does benefit the gangs and cartels who control the currently illegal marijuana trade,” Ryan said.

“When so many murders, rapes and robberies go unsolved, it makes absolutely no sense to keep taking up space in our courtrooms and jails with people arrested for marijuana possession,” said another member of LEAP, former Lafayette Judge Leonard Frieling.

“And even on the distribution end, no matter how many drug cartels and gangs we bust, there are always more criminals willing to step up and risk their lives and freedom for a chance at lucrative black market profits,” Frieling said. “Our state’s voters have the power to strike a bigger blow against organized crime with this initiative to treat marijuana like alcohol than any amount of skill and dedication in the criminal justice system ever can.”