A group of retired law enforcement officers Monday endorsed a proposition on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana in California.
Proposition 19 would allow adults aged 21 and older to have up to an ounce of marijuana and grow a limited amount.
Legalizing the drug would allow government to better regulate its use, raise public funds by taxing it and free up officers to focus on more violent crimes, said the retired officers, judges and prosecutors who comprise the group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
"Do you want to continue what has never worked?" former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara said of the current drug law. "In attempting to enforce it, we've created lots of crime and illegal drug gangs and put otherwise law-abiding people in jail."
The group's endorsement stands in sharp contrast with law enforcement and government officials in Mendocino and Sonoma counties who have said the law is poorly written and would force each local government to come up with its own policies.
"Proposition 19 isn't a solution to our problems," Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said.
Opponents say an "opt in" policy meant to let local jurisdictions create their own policies would actually create widespread confusion.
"The inconsistency the law presents to citizens isn't fair," Allman said. "It would be possible for someone in Mendocino County to be doing something legal, then they visit a friend in Lake County and get pulled over and are found to be acting against the law."
In Sonoma County, the board of supervisors voted Aug. 24 to oppose Proposition 19. Legalizing marijuana could breed more drug addiction and create conflicts with the federal government, they said.
Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill said that legalizing marijuana in California won't curb the violence associated with its sales because the drug would still be illegal elsewhere.
"We could become a supplier for the world," he said.
If passed, the law would make it illegal to work or drive while high, but as written, it doesn't address how to prove a person is high, Cogbill said.
Alcohol is easy to detect through blood tests and breathalizers, but evidence of marijuana use lingers in the system, making it harder to pinpoint when a person is impaired.
"You could say it's in your system but you weren't influenced by it at the time," Cogbill said.
Members of the California Chief's Association and the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chief's Association also voted to oppose the proposed law, said Santa Rosa Police Chief Tom Schwedhelm, a member of both groups.
As police chief, Schwedhelm hasn't taken a position on the proposition, he said, and neither has the city council. But he questions proponents' claim that legalizing marijuana would reduce violent crime.
"We've investigated many instances of violence related to the cultivation and sales of marijuana. Why are people arming themselves? Some of these gardens are legal," Schwedhelm said.
Members of the former law enforcement group announced their support at two events Monday, one in front of Oakland City Hall and another in West Hollywood Park near Los Angeles.
Current law enforcement officials are obligated to support laws and are ethically unable to oppose it in public, but retired officers can speak out, said McNamara, who is now a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute.
"We're pushing police into a war they didn't declare and they can't win, and that comes at so much cost to taxpayers and society," he said.
Local officials say they don't share McNamara's view that officers support legalization behind closed doors.
Said Cogbill of the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chief's Association, "We were talking in a room by ourselves, and we all said we could see problems with it."
Nationally, President Barack Obama's director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, spoke out against the proposed law. Nine former Drug Enforcement Administration bosses wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that legalizing the drug threatens federal authority.
You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.
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