Great. Thank you.
Mr. Barnum and Mr. Fulford, we talked about decriminalization of these substances. I think there's been a misunderstanding. Certainly when anyone advocates for decriminalization, as was described in our testimony today, not of large-scale trafficking, not of the crime associated with it, but just for simple possession, there are those who counter that these advocates want to legalize all drugs. I'm hoping we can get over that.
It sounds like both of you understand that, and I think every one of our witnesses understands that. We're not talking about legalizing all drugs when we talk about decriminalization.
Mr. Barnum, in your testimony, you said that what you need is an ability to deal with the organized crime surrounding the drug trade. Again, in my previous practice, I took out more bullets due to the drug trade than I care to count.
Do you believe that if we were to decriminalize simple drug possession in small amounts for personal use, it would interfere with the ability of the police to deal with these large-scale criminal activities with drugs?
Mr. Fulford, you could make a comment on that as well.