Quote Originally Posted by budlover13
AWESOME organization! I have been following them for several years now. I have helped a little with fundraisers and would LOVE to speak, but most of their speakers are, rightfully, higher ranking than I when I got out. I have been attempting to broker a sort of understanding between LEO and the MJ community through posting in various forums and speaking to the locals I can. I have also been active on FB(yes, I know, poison if not in a legal state) and have made some small differences to a few.

Most LEO I know are in the same camp as us, except for their paycheck. That has been the biggest hurdle to the movement since ANY man is loathe to give up the means they use to support their families. Politics dammit! The key seems to be in allowing, through legislation, the paychecks to be paid by the taxes that are collected through legalization. Most cops are normal folk that got high in school and also drank and smoked. As a matter of fact, MOST background checks will fail you if you say you have never smoked pot. It's a given.
The speaker's bureau at LEAP is not as rigid as you may think brother. Jack Cole suggested I become a leap speaker and I had only eight years in the saddle as an LEO. I retired early after having gotten shot a couple of times. Of course that was about a decade ago and now Neill Franklin is executive director but I think he feels the same way. I now have twelve years experience- got back into the criminal justice system as a peace officer for awhile.

I didn't take Jack up on his kind offer back then for various reasons but I'm thinking about going ahead with it now due to some rather unusual circumstances that have recently occurred with my employment (basically got canned for my activism on cannabis in our last election in California). Seems the letter I signed didn't have an adequate disclaimer in management's opinion. "All agency affiliations are listed for identification purposes only" apparently wasn't good enough for my boss. Sucks to be fired right before Christmas but I'm currently working on an appeal to the termination.

But anyways, don't sell yourself short. LEAP can always use comprehensive reformers with LEO experience as speakers. Just keep in mind there can be consequences for doing so- these prohibs actually think they're waging a "war" against us.