While President Obama told Law Enforcement Against Prohibition member MacKenzie Allen, a retired deputy sheriff during an interview with the organization:

We have to think more about drugs as a public health problem

his comments on the new federal drug new budget show things in a different light.

MacKenzie Allen, the retired deputy sheriff and a currently a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), has the #1 question in YouTube’s “Ask Obama” contest, in which President Obama will answer the top-voted questions in a live interview to be broadcast this afternoon from the White House. Allen’s question got twice as many votes as the next-highest voted question.

In just the last several days, dozens of police officers, prosecutors, and other law enforcement officials have joined forces to endorse California’s Prop 19 to legalize marijuana. Led by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the mostly former officials say that marijuana prohibition only fuels more dangerous crime by enriching Mexican drug cartels who put guns on American streets.

Great news from our friends at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: the National Black Police Association, a 38-year-old advocacy group for African American law enforcement professionals, has endorsed Prop 19, California’s marijuana legalization initiative.

As Mexico’s government announced the death toll in the four-year-long war with drug cartels totaled more than 28,000, President Felipe Calderon called for a debate on legalizing drugs to fight the cartels. Norm Stamper, a 34-year veteran police officer who was Seattle’s chief of police and is now a speaker with the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), issued the following statement for the Just Say Now campaign to legalize marijuana

On Friday, May 14th, we sat down with Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and a 32-year law enforcement veteran, to discuss President Obama’s drug policy, the CA ballot initiative, and the general state of the war on drugs.

Don’t just celebrate marijuana on 4/20; Help us change the failed and harmful marijuana laws.