Former law enforcement officer and Colorado House Rep. Gary Lindstrom speaks out in favor of Breckenridge’s legalization proposal:
(Summit Daily News) As a former law enforcement officer, I wholeheartedly support ballot issue 2F, the proposal to establish a sensible marijuana policy in the Town of Breckenridge.
In May of 1964, I pinned a badge on my shirt in the City of New York. Six years later I became one of the first Lakewood Police Agents and served for three years. I later went to Jefferson County Schools and in 1974 moved to the mountains where I became the Summit County Undersheriff and the very first director of public safety. All told, I have more than 31 years active duty as a police officer and have held a commission for over 44 years.
In my many years as a police officer, I never saw anyone hurt or killed from the use of marijuana. The only thing ever destroyed was an expedient bag of potato chips. In my experience, the greatest behavioral threat from an adult using marijuana is that the user fall asleep.
At polls starting on October 19, voters will consider whether to remove criminal penalties for the adult private possession of small amounts of marijuana under the Breckenridge Town Code. I encourage citizens to vote “yes” on this ballot question. Based on my experiences in law enforcement and at the state Legislature, I believe we need to stop criminalizing responsible adults who choose to relax at night with marijuana — a safer drug then alcohol.
Marijuana should be regulated for adult use and taxed to the maximum. This new tax revenue could benefit education and health care. The money saved by eliminating law enforcement efforts to enforce these broken laws would amount to many billions more.
Marijuana is not a gateway drug. I worked with large groups of heroin users in New York City and they did not start with marijuana. Most started with alcohol. Several people have died in our towns and county from the use of alcohol in the past year, but there have been no such problems with marijuana. Let’s stop punishing adults for making a safer choice when recreating.
The only thing that bothers me when reporting on these law enforcement officers who support ending marijuana prohibition is that I always have to put the word “former” before “law enforcement”. I understand that current cops can’t exactly out themselves as supportive of marijuana reform for a variety of reasons, but where are the cloaked-in-shadows, voice-disguised law enforcement officers speaking out anonymously against prohibition? I can only recall this one, from one of our NORML Ad Contest entries:
