Retired Denver Police Lt. Tony Ryan, a member of the 10K strong group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, told Mile High City reporters on Oct. 24 that he is supporting an initiative on the city’s November ballot that would make adult possession of less than one ounce of pot the city’s “lowest law enforcement priority.”
To date, city leaders – including beer-peddling Mayor John Hickenlooper, founder of Wynkoop Brewing Co. – have been wringing their hands over the inclusion of the initiative, repeatedly making clear they don’t support it – although their reported reasons are clearly knee-jerk and not a clearly contemplated public policy decision.
Standing outside city hall, Ryan, who spent 36 years with the PD, said he’s backing the initiative not because he advocates drug use, the Rocky Mountain News reports, but because police resources are better spent fighting violent and property crimes rather than busting recreational pot smokers. “I was a street officer most of my career through the ranks, and homicides, rapes, assaults, domestic violence…alcohol was involved in every one of them,” he said. “Seldom is marijuana involved and if it was it was not a cause, alcohol was.”
This article appears in October 19 • 2007.