Nine States and Localities Vote for More Sensible Drug Laws

“Because of the victories in all of these places, we awakened this morning in a slightly better country. It’s a little safer, a little bit more just,” said Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and 34-year veteran of the Baltimore and Maryland State police departments.

Major Franklin continues, “And when the rest of the country follows the lead pioneered by the voters of Colorado and Washington, we’ll be closer to living in a country with a drug policy that is truly about public safety.”

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of cops, judges, prosecutors and other law enforcement officials advocating for the legalization of drugs, has speakers on hand to comment.

Norm Stamper, former Seattle police chief, had this to say: “I cannot tell you how happy I am that after forty years of the racist, destructive exercise in futility that is the war on drugs, my home state of Washington has now put us on a different path. There are people who have lost today: drug cartels, street gangs, those who profit from keeping American incarceration rates the highest in the world.”

“For the rest of us, however, this is a win. It’s a win for taxpayers. It’s a win for police. It’s a win for all those who care about social justice. This is indeed a wonderful day,” says Stamper.

Reformers are now focused on successfully implementing the new marijuana legalization laws in Colorado and Washington, and on determining which states are most likely to enact legalization in the near future.

Massachusetts