LEAP Fundraiser in Long Beach Brings Big Names

Legalize It film screening in Long Beach brings out Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate Judge Jim Gray, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Drug Policy Alliance, Moms United To End the War on Drugs, and Medical Marijuana 411 had a front row seat.

By Sam Sabzehzar  |  October 29, 2012

Richard Lee, Dale Sky Jones, and Jeff Jones were honored at a film screening for Legalize It, a film about California’s Prop 19, Produced by Willie Nelson’s Luck Films, and big names come out to the Long Beach Art Theatre, including LEAP Speaker and Vice Presidential Candidate Judge Jim Gray, Drug Policy Alliance State Director Lynne Lyman, and Former City Council Member for Long Beach Rae Gabelich.

The film screening was the first time a Southern California audience had the chance to see the film and there was a Q & A with the filmmakers and several key subjects in the film, including Vice Presidential Candidate for the Libertarian Party, Judge Jim Gray, who has been a critic of the War on Drugs for more than two decades.

The film focuses on California’s Proposition 19, which would’ve made marijuana legal and therefore it could be regulated, controlled and taxed, which cannot be done with illegal substances.

Those behind Prop 19 are the central figures in the film, Richard Lee, who funded a majority of the initiative and was the lynchpin for bringing to the California voters an option for adults to get intoxicated with other than alcohol, and cannabis is the safer option.

During these last elections, Washington and Colorado both successfully achieved what California could not and many believe it wouldn’t be possible without California kickstarting the conversation around the country when all eyes were on California’s popular propositions just two years ago.

LEAP Speakers Stephen Downing, Kyle Kazan, and Diane Goldstein also took the stage and spoke about the need to end the prohibition of marijuana in the states that have it on the ballot and have formally endorsed the initiative.

Downing, who was a Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief and saw the escalation of the Drug War, formally apologized for his actions this summer while on the Caravan For Peace while traveling with around 100 victims of Mexico’s Drug War.

One of the victims who heard Chief Downing’s apology in Atlanta was also on the evening panel, and retold some of her story to the Long Beach audience as well.

The evening was a success, and is sure to be the first of many to follow as LEAP looks to other communities and their leaders to bring an end to marijuana prohibition once and for all.

Other sponsors of the evening event were The Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Moms United to End the War on Drugs, as well as local Long Beach businesses, where the war on drugs has reached the medical cannabis dispensing market as the city fights back against the will of the voters as the work out regulations for medical marijuana.