“Legalizing marijuana has allowed police to focus on real crimes but taken away their excuse for otherwise unjustified searches and seizures,” said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of criminal justice professionals opposed to the drug war. “Of course some law enforcement officers are going to be upset about that. But I would ask those officers to think about why they joined the force in the first place, why they risk their lives every day just to do their jobs. I doubt many would say it’s to go after low-level drug offenders, whose lives will largely be destroyed in the process and whose communities have come to see police as the enemy. They would say they went into this job because they wanted to protect people, to be heroes, and it’s about time they recognize that that’s the opposite of what they’re doing when they defend current drug policy.”