By Matt Ferner In a series of television and radio ads released in Alaska Wednesday, active and retired members of the state’s law enforcement community are backing the recreational marijuana legalization measure that voters will decide on in less than three weeks.

“In all my years on the streets, it’s hard to recall a single time where marijuana use itself was the cause of a violent incident,” Jess Gondek, an officer in Valdez, Alaska, says in one of the ads. “As a police officer, I do believe Ballot Measure 2 will allow law enforcement to focus on more serious issues in Alaska.”

In a second television ad, Bill Parker, a former deputy commissioner for the Alaska Department of Corrections, says that “the war on marijuana is wasteful, and it hasn’t worked.” Parker adds that law enforcement officials’ time and resources are limited, and using them on the enforcement of marijuana prohibition is like “using a hammer to go after a mosquito.”

Both videos include text saying that according to the state’s Department of Public Safety, there have been more than 8,000 arrests for marijuana possession in Alaska since 2004.

A third ad, airing on radio, features Alaska’s former Chief Prosecutor Laurie Constantino, who says that the state’s marijuana prohibition laws “aren’t working” and “have caused more problems than they’ve solved.”

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, a nonprofit backed by marijuana reform groups Marijuana Policy Project and Drug Policy Alliance, paid for the campaign.

Of course, not all law enforcement officers are in agreement on the issue. Ten of Alaska’s police chiefs from both rural and urban areas met in Anchorage this week to voice their opposition to legalization.

“We already have the highest arrest rates [for substance abuse] of any Alaska community,” Nome Police Chief John Papasodora said at the meeting, …read more

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Source:: Active And Retired Alaska Law Enforcement Support Marijuana Legalization In New Ads