September 10, 2013 5:31PM # Sheriff John Urquhart on Marijuana and Law Enforcement By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE ![Media Name: sheriff-urquhart.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/sheriff-urquhart.jpg?itok=FDOXfmlG) Today the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the interaction between federal and state law with respect to marijuana. Last November, voters in Colorado and Washington approved referenda that would legalize marijuana in those states. The most impressive witness at today’s hearing was Sheriff John Urquhart, who is responsible for the Seattle area in Washington. He said the drug war is a failure and that the people in his state are ready to try something new. Here is a [link to the video](http://www.senate.gov/isvp/?comm=judiciary&type=live&filename=judiciary091013p) for the entire hearing. Check out Sheriff Urquhart’s five minute introduction which begins at the 1 hour 29 minute mark. His written testimony can be found [here](http://judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/9-10-13UrquhartTestimony.pdf). For other police officials who call for ending the drug war, check out [LEAP](http://www.leap.cc/) (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).