 The last of the wards is named after Justice Gerald LeDen. He was the Canadian Supreme Court Justice, who before he became the Justice, you know, in the United States, we had the Schaefer Commission report, the breakthrough report appointed by President Nixon that came out with all sorts of recommendations that he really didn't wanna hear. The same thing happened in Canada with Justice LeDen. A breakthrough report like the one in the U.S. that opened up a new dialogue back in the 1970s about drug policy. We give this award for accomplishment in the field of law. Sometimes lawyers, sometimes activists, sometimes all sorts of people. Well, in this case, the award is gonna go to the people that we thought were really among the most responsible for the victories in Colorado and Washington. So I'm gonna ask Ira Glasser to come on up here and give these awards to Allison Holcomb, represented here by Pete Holmes, the city attorney of Washington, and to Brian and Mason and Steve Fox, who plays a Jiquiro in Colorado. Well, believe it or not, I'm gonna be really brief and leave what time there is to the award winners to say what they wanna say. And I'll let you read about their extensive biographies and experience in this field in the program, as Ethan suggested at the beginning. And if we ever find those programs, we'll mail them out to you. But it's important to note that when something like these ballot initiatives get passed, it's never just due to two or three people, of course. It's due to many people. And many people deserve all kinds of credit for it. But in the end of the day, somebody has to write it. Somebody has to run the campaign and they have to do it right or the movement gets set back. It has to be written carefully, it has to be managed carefully, and above all, it has to be won. Because winning isn't everything, but losing isn't anything. And these are the three people in Colorado, Steve and Mason and Brian, who made the difference in writing the initiative, in managing and directing the campaign to get it passed. So please come up and accept this award if I can find it. Thank you, everyone. Much appreciated. Thank you, Ira, for the introduction. Thanks, DPA, for the award, of course, and a great conference, as always, the highlight of every two years. It's really an honor to receive this award and have this recognized. And it's an especially, special honor to share it with my two great friends and colleagues. The Amendment 64 campaign wasn't won overnight. It wasn't won in 2012 or 2011, but this is something the three of us have worked on for eight years together, which is really amazing. Thank you. Brian Vicentes started Sensible Colorado in 2004 with a grant from the Marijuana Policy Project in Peter Lewis, and for years, and for years stood up for the patients in the state and not just standing up for them, but representing them on the legal side and helped open up the entire industry that exists by helping to defeat an attempt by Colorado State to limit caregivers to only serving five patients. And by winning that, it opened up the ability for caregivers to serve as many patients as they could, which led to the development of the industry. So that's incredible work by Brian and really set the stage for regulating for all adults. So let's hear it for Brian. Then my good friend Mason, who, I showed someone the other night, I don't think you'll be able to see this from here, but this is my phone, and on the home screen, it's my two daughters, my wife and Mason, as my little four speed dials. You can see it later if you want. That's because we really spoke every day for about eight years working on the Safer Campaign that he and I founded with Aaron Houston back in 2005. And as I suppose all you know, the whole purpose was to change the culture, help people understand marijuana's less harmful than alcohol and all that and lay the groundwork for a time when marijuana could be made legal. So long story short, it worked out. And Mason was the person while I was sitting behind my desk comfortably, Mason was doing every kind of stunt and petition drive and interview that came up and whatever it was. If we decided that he was gonna challenge the mayor of Denver to a duel where he would smoke, have a puff of his joint for every beer that the mayor could chug. Mason was ready to do it and we got the media coverage we wanted. And in the end, it all worked out. So let's hear it for Mason. The next thank you, well is actually making up for a mistake I made and I'm glad I have an opportunity to make up for it. On election night, it was a great, amazing party, amazing victory and so on, as you can imagine. And at one point we were able to go up and each say a few words. It was the three of us along with Betty Aldworth. I don't know if she's here. Great spokeswoman for the campaign now becoming executive director of SSDP will shall do great. So, and the other person was Rob Campia and I was told beforehand I was told beforehand that based on the order of speakers that I would introduce him, but I got all fired up during my speech and then the next thing you know, I just said, and here's Rob, basically that. So what I should have said then and felt bad about it for a long time but can say now is that the three of us here are pretty hardworking, pretty smart and so on, can configure a lot of things out and get a lot of things done. But without Rob Campia and MPP, we just would have been sitting around on our couches talking about making marijuana legal. So I wanna give a great amount of thanks to Rob because there was a time, well basically MPP put in 90% of the money for the campaign at a time when we didn't know if we could get the signature drive done or anything like that and at a time when the polling wasn't incredibly high. He said, well we're gonna buy ads early because they're cheaper and put in a lot of money. So really marijuana would not be legal in this state if it weren't for Rob, so let's hear it for Rob. So finally and with my time running out, I'd like to dedicate the award or at least the third that I own. Oh no, actually we got three, I don't wanna make it seem cheap. So I would like to dedicate my award to my parents. I was brought up in a Jewish household, not really Jewish, we weren't kosher, we didn't go to synagogue or anything like that. But they raised me to believe in the philosophy captured by the phrase takun alum, which means to repair or heal or transform the world. And it is immensely gratifying to know that because of our work, now any veteran in this state with PTSD can use marijuana. Any couple that wants to relax at night and have a great time can now do so. Any person that wants to go to a Vicente Cedarburg party and have a great time can do so. And most satisfying is at this event, the number of international folks that are here from Uruguay, Mexico, Columbia, Canada, elsewhere are all here and seeing what's happening here and we'll bring it home. And we truly will transform the world, so takun alum. And the last award, the second stage of this award goes to Allison Holcomb, who is the person who in Washington did what Mason and Steve and Brian did here. She was the primary author of and the primary director of the campaign for I-502. And without her and what she did, it wouldn't have happened. Again, I'll leave you to read her resume, but I do want to say one thing that she is the criminal justice director of the ACLU of Washington for which I take some pride, but no credit because she was hired in 2006, five years after I retired. And although I must tell you that it was not an accident that this happened in Washington. The ACLU of Washington was the only affiliate of the ACLU, the only state affiliate in the entire country which took to this issue like that faster than anybody else. When Lauren Siegel and I were first pushing this issue out of the National Office of the ACLU back in the late 80s and tried to ignite our affiliate structure under states to do this, the ACLU of Washington under the direction of Kathleen Taylor took to it immediately and has always been a major force. Andy Coe worked there for a long time. And so Alison Holcomb was in the tradition and I wish she was here for me to congratulate her personally but here to accept the award is Pete Holmes, the city attorney of Seattle and who can congratulate her for us. Let's be honest, I'm not worthy to accept this award on behalf of Alison. She is the brains behind this initiative and she directed it as Ira said. But you know, the fact that she can't be here tonight is a little bit of symmetry because Alison is traveling to approximately half a dozen countries in South America and Europe helping them to undo that twisted prohibition policies in those countries. And the reason I say it's a bit of symmetry is because we exported this policy across the world and now we're exporting Alison Holcomb to help undo it. As I said, Alison is a passionate, brilliant lawyer and she carried out this campaign and drafted this law while she was also, while she still is, of course, a wife and a mother to a four-year-old, boisterous boy throughout this campaign who became a fixture at a lot of the rallies. So as Ira alluded to, Kathleen Taylor, who allowed Alison to go from ACLU into New Approach, Washington, thank God for powerful women like this to help write these wrongs. Thank you, Alison. You know, you gotta love it when the chief prosecutor comes to accept the award on behalf of the leader of the legalization initiative is the world changing or what? Well, it's time to wrap it up. I'm so glad you all made it to Denver for those of you who came from out of town. I look forward to seeing you all two years from now in Washington, D.C. Let's hope and pray that we have a whole but that Uruguay legalizes next month and Oregon and Alaska and others in the next year. Let's hope and pray that the number of people locked up in America has gone down by 100,000, if not more in the next couple of years. Let's hope and pray that the number of people who get access to drug treatment or the help they need increases with Obamacare or whatever else is gonna make it available to them. Let's hope and pray that leadership continues to emerge from the elites and that civil society and the grassroots keeps driving us forward. Let's see more presidents stepping up and more governors and senators beginning to open their mouths. Let's see our activism get more powered and more sophisticated because we are winning but we got a long way to go. Have a great night, stay safe, see you in a couple of years. Bye bye.