Posted January 4th, 2011 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
No Guts – Call her an Ostrich: While delivering Christmas cards in the Rayburn building, I was informed that the recently elected Attorney General of California was having a briefing sponsored by the Black Congressional Caucus. I was able to ask her, Ms. Kamala Harris, a question after the Members had finished.
After I introduced myself I asked, ‘Given that about 70% of felony crime in California touches drug prohibition/war on drugs, would you consider an education campaign to teach California about this unintended consequence and cost of drug prohibition?’
Her response,’My experience as a prosecutor in San Francisco was about 60% of felony crime had something to do with drugs.’ No, I would not legalize any drug.’ And she stopped right there.
Shucks. Quelle surprise she would not answer the question.
Relationships matter: As I was delivering cards in the Cannon building, Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) happened to be in the reception area of her office. She read the shirt, took two steps, shook my hand and thanked me for my advocacy.* I thanked her effort to reduce drug overdose deaths (she sponsored a bill to provide grants to local police to start a ‘Good Samaritan’( see below for the actual bill*) approach to overdose deaths, like New Mexico started in 2007.
As her bill went nowhere even with Nancy Pelosi in charge, I suggested she introduce a new bill in January; namely introduce the Good Sam approach to all federal land, buildings and bases. This would cost nothing and would be a lighthouse for the rest of the nation. (only New Mexico and Washington State have a solid Good Sam law). *copy of bill below.
She asked her legislative director to join the conversation. As she introduced us, LD Terra Sabag informed her boss that she had known me for several years. I had met Terra 3 or 4 years ago when she was just an assistant. That night I emailed Terra a copy of the New Mexico law for use as an exemplar. Again many thanks to Reena Szczepanski ( whom I met riding Misty across America in 2005) – then with the Drug Policy Alliance – for passing that law in Santa Fe.
*advocacy = Eintreten
COPs 2nd year stats to date:
TV appearances: 12 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable)
Newspaper stories: 6 dailes, 3 weeklies
Radio appearances: 6
Published LTE: 6 (two this week)
36 presentations to Congressional staffers (five this week)
1 VIP (Member of Congress) presentations: (one this week)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
*Signed into law on April 3, 2007 by Governor Richardson
SENATE BILL 200
48TH LEGISLATURE – STATE OF NEW MEXICO – FIRST SESSION, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Richard C. Martinez AN ACT RELATING TO CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES; PROVIDING LIMITED IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION FOR A PERSON WHO SEEKS OR OBTAINS MEDICAL ASSISTANCE FOR A DRUG-RELATED OVERDOSE. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
Section 1. A new section of the Controlled Substances Act is enacted to read:
“[NEW MATERIAL] OVERDOSE PREVENTION–LIMITED IMMUNITY.—
A. A person who, in good faith, seeks medical assistance for someone experiencing a drug-related overdose shall not be charged or prosecuted for possession of a
controlled substance pursuant to the provisions of Section 30-31-23 NMSA 1978 if the evidence for the charge of possession of a controlled substance was gained as a result of
the seeking of medical assistance.
B. A person who experiences a drug-related overdose and is in need of medical assistance shall not be charged or prosecuted for possession of a controlled substance pursuant to the provisions of Section 30-31-23 NMSA 1978 if the evidence for the charge of possession of a controlled substance was gained as a result of the overdose and the need
for medical assistance.
C. The act of seeking medical assistance for someone who is experiencing a drug-related overdose may be used as a mitigating factor in a criminal prosecution pursuant
to the Controlled Substances Act.”
This concept was endorsed by the US Mayors Conference, June 25, 2008
Posted January 3rd, 2011 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Felt good: I spent the last two days of this week passing out a special COPs Christmas card to all House Members of Congress. (Thanks to COPs’ member Alice Schuyler of Idaho for the art work/creation) I wore my t-shirt because it provokes so many excellent mini-chats with Congressional staff and tourists. Also, it means walking several miles in the over-heated halls of Congress. I had opened already about 200 doors on Friday, when I entered the office of Congressman Dave Reichert — sheriff of King County (Seattle), Washington. Twelve staffers were having a Christmas party with the Congressman siting directly across from the door. He read my t-shirt out loud then said, “Well here is one cop who would not legalize.” I looked him in the eye and replied, “Most cops want to arrest bad guys, not more Willie Nelsons.”
I gave the aide the card and stepped out. It was the first time in five years I was able to rebuke* a Congressman & it felt good, damn good!
Thanks for asking: Out of the blue this week – Pulitzer prize-winning & nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker asked for my help. She requested background information and my analysis of an about to released federal report on teen drug use (Monitoring the Future). This to help prepare her for her TV show (Parker & Spitzer – CNN: http://parkerspitzer.blogs.cnn.com/). Their guest was a former DEA agent Stutman (big time prohibition fan). As marijuana was going to a big part of the issue, I quickly called 4 top experts in marijuana policy, receiving the latest/best info. I eventually sent her about 20 minutes of reading/tough points to prepare for the segment.*
The show with this segment will air during the holiday season. Sorry, no firm date.
NOTE: Ms. Parker had previously featured me in a column in 2009, regarding how the police under resource crimes touching child sexual abuse and the rape of women. I include it at the very bottom. 3 minute read.
Rebuke = Tadel
Segment = der Teil
COPs 2nd year stats to date:
TV appearances: 12 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable)
Newspaper stories: 6 dailes, 3 weeklies
Radio appearances: 6
Published LTE: 4
31 presentations to Congressional staffers (six this week)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
*************************************************************************
Time to re-examine nation’s drug laws? By Kathleen Parker
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Drink and drive and it’s grrrrrrrr-eat! Smoke pot and your flakes are frosted, dude.
So seems the message from Kellogg, which has decided not to renew its sponsorship contract with Michael Phelps after the Olympian was photographed smoking marijuana at a party in South Carolina.
That’s showbiz, of course, but the cereal and munchie company had no problem signing Phelps despite a prior alcohol-related arrest. In 2004, Phelps was fined and sentenced to 18 months probation and community service after pleading guilty to driving while impaired.
The silliness of our laws – and the hypocrisy of our selective attitudes toward mood enhancers – needs no further elaboration. Even so, things are getting sillier by the minute.
Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff Leon Lott has now made eight pot-related arrests based on the snap that shot around the world. Seven were for possession and one for distribution, after deputies used warrants to enter the house where Phelps allegedly was photographed.
Phelps may be next.
In an earlier column, I gave Lott the benefit of the doubt, suggesting that his hands were tied given the laws of the land and South Carolina’s political climate. I retract the benefit.
Sheriffs, though elected and therefore political, have great latitude as to what crimes they pursue. In a state that recently ranked among the most dangerous in the nation, one would think South Carolina’s law enforcement officials have better things to do.
Indeed, they do. In our peculiar obsession to track down the Willie Nelsons, Rush Limbaughs, and now Michael Phelpses of society -nonviolent, victimless imbibers of drugs – we’ve actually made society less safe.
That’s the conclusion of 10,000 cops, prosecutors, judges and others who make up the membership of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Howard Wooldridge, LEAP’s Washington representative, is a former cop and detective who lectures civic clubs and congressional staffers on the futility of drug laws that reduce public safety by wasting time and money.
He points to child pornography as just one example.
As of last April, he says, law enforcement had identified 623,000 computers containing child pornography, including downloadable video of child rape. Only a fraction of those have been pursued with search warrants, thanks to limited resources and staff shortages. What’s worse, Wooldridge says, is that one of three search warrants also produces a child victim on the premises.
Another example: Last year Human Rights Watch reported that as many as 400,000 rape kits containing evidence were sitting unopened in criminal labs and storage facilities. Between the Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County sheriff’s office, nearly 12,000 kits were unopened, according to an NPR report in December.
Arguments against prohibition should be obvious. When you eliminate the victimless “crime” of drug use, you disempower the criminal element.
Neutering drug gangs and cartels, not to mention the Taliban, would be no small byproduct of decriminalization. Not only would state regulation minimize toxic concoctions common on the black market, but also taxation would be a windfall in a hurting economy.
No one’s saying that drugs aren’t dangerous. Alcohol and tobacco are also dangerous.
And no one thinks children should have access to harmful substances, though they already do. Parents who recoil because their child became an addict should note that prohibition didn’t help.
What prohibition did was criminalize what is essentially a health problem -and overcrowd prisons. In 2007, there were 872,720 marijuana arrests in the U.S. Of those, 775,137 were for possession. South Carolina just added eight to this year’s roster.
The greatest obstacle to drug law reform is public fear and politics, says Wooldridge, as he set off to give eight presentations on Capitol Hill Thursday. “I’ve had staffers tell me that to even call a hearing will get you un-elected.”
Which, perhaps, explains why Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. – the only congressman to even approach the subject recently – has tackled the drug problem through the issue of prison overcrowding. Webb has held two hearings before the Joint Economic Committee on U.S. drug policy and incarceration costs. This year, he has promised to push for a blue-ribbon commission to study why the U.S. has more people in jail than any other country.
The answer – and the solution – seems clear.
I’m not convinced that all drugs should be legalized, but we should at least put prohibition on the table to take another look. In the meantime, Sheriff Lott has some ‘splainin’ do to.
Kathleen Parker can be reached at kparker(@kparker.com.
Howard
Detective/Officer Howard Wooldridge (retired)
Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org
Washington, DC
817-975-1110 Cell
howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org
Domino el español
Ich verstehe mich gut auf Deutsch
Je parle français assez bien pour un petit, timid, moyen cowboy
Citizens Opposing Prohibition – Become a Member
PO Box 772
Buckeystown, MD 21717-0772
Modern Prohibition/The War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional & immoral domestic policy since slavery & Jim Crow.
Posted January 2nd, 2011 by hiwayhowie
TREAT ADDICTS LIKE PATIENTS, NOT CRIMINALS
Regarding Wednesday’s article “Heroin abuse, deaths on the rise,” as a retired police officer, I am familiar with drug overdose and death.
As a traveler, I have met with doctors and officials in Switzerland to see first-hand the success of their method of handling heroin.
Since 1994 they have treated heroin use as a medical issue and have been rewarded with dramatic decreases in crime, and no one in the program has died of an overdose in 16 years. This model has been adopted by Germany, Denmark and Holland because it works.
The American model of treating drug addicts as criminals ( except for those addicted to alcohol and cigarettes ) has not worked in decades, despite a trillion tax dollars spent.
Know that my colleagues, such as Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, will always advocate locking abusers up as it provides solid job security and overtime for his officers.
Howard Wooldridge – drug policy specialist
Citizens Opposing Prohibition
Posted January 2nd, 2011 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Does lack of money matter?: At a general conference on Tuesday, a couple of senior House Democratic staffers told us that the issue of deficits/no money has NOT come up, as they discuss spending policies going forward. During my five presentations on Friday to Senate staffers, the two Republican staffers said lack of money has and will come up when discussing spending policies. Stay tuned to see how much the new Tea Party Republicans try to stop spending. Note: The Heritage Foundation (conservative) recently released a white paper, calling for the abolition of the Drug Czar’s office, citing the office is not effective.
Okay. Convince me and the Senator: A senior D Senator from the Northeast has always been a drug warrior. I know this from four visits over the past four years. ‘John’ his staff assistant was also a believer in prohibition, when we started our 45 minute meeting. At the end he requested two briefs. If they were good enough, he promised to have the Senator read them. Brief One: state the harms to young people caused by the prohibition of marijuana. Brief Two: state the positive outcomes of moving to a post marijuana prohibition world in general.
I immediately contacted four experts in marijuana policy to get their ideas. Below is an exemplar of what the office wants. The sheet is what I have given every office in 2010. Stay tuned.
COPs 2nd year stats to date:
TV appearances: 12 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable)
Newspaper stories: 6 dailes, 3 weeklies
Radio appearances: 6
Published LTE: 4
25 presentations to Congressional staffers (five this week)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
BEST REASONS TO EXAMINE MARIJUANA PROHIBITION
#1A. Public safety suffers as a result of MJ Prohibition, as officers are diverted from more important cases. The detectives flying around in helicopters looking for marijuana in your backyard are not catching the pedophiles in the internet chatrooms playground nor the rapists near the jogging paths. Road officers spend as much time looking for marijuana under someone’s front seat as they do drunk drivers. And what kills12,000 Americans every year?
#1B. Personal Safety. Marijuana is safer than alcohol for the user, their family and their community. Anyone of any age who uses marijuana in place of alcohol improves the outcome of drug use i.e. no overdose deaths by drinking, far fewer homicides, suicides, rapes, assault, child/spouse abuse, car crashes, and other problems caused by drinking & not by marijuana. How many teetotalers/non-drinkers would start using MJ, when it became legal? Not many.
#2.. Improve health care and lower costs. Marijuana is the best medicine in some cases and certainly it is the least expensive. Unrestricted use by adults would improve their health, as it has few side effects, low addiction qualities and titration (dosing) improves. Since it could be grown privately for nearly free or purchased at a price approaching aspirin per dose, families could save on drug costs. That is THE reason drug companies fear marijuana as a competitive product.
#3. Prohibition causes disrespect for all laws. Everyone sees the hypocrisy of marijuana being illegal, while cigarettes, alcohol, Valium & Prozac are legal. Young adults who have their cars or persons illegally searched by over-zealous police become bitter and don’t respect the law.
#4A. Human costs. Tuition costs at colleges are much higher, as states build more prisons, instead of properly funding higher education. Thus fewer young people can attend or they are burdened with huge debts upon graduation. Prohibition increases the contact that marijuana consumers have with dealers who offer harder drugs for sale.
Prohibition sucks our kids into criminality, when they become sellers of pot. This can end up with them in prison or dead. Pot’s illegality creates glamour and rebellion factors, drawing youth to it like moths to a flame. Per federal studies, marijuana has been easier for young teens to buy than alcohol for 30 years. Per the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) “drugs are readily available to America’s youth.” How could it become worse?
#4B. Financial costs. Enforcement costs are conservatively 11 billion per year. Taxed at a dollar per dose (.8 grams), 5 billion could be added to budgets across the nation. At 30,000 per year per prisoner, those in prison for sale or probation violation chew up billions of tax dollars.
#5. Marijuana use does NOT increase use of harder drugs. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (division of the National Institute of Health) concluded, “There is no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone [to other drugs] on the basis of its particular physiological effect.”
The American College of Physicians noted in February 2008, “Marijuana has not been proven to be the cause or even the most serious predictor of serious drug abuse.”
#6. Hemp could be grown without issue. Farmers are ready to plant & harvest it now.
Posted December 30th, 2010 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Working Vacation: Karen and I got away for a week to Puerto Rico. Between the perfect weather, friendly locals/ tourists, a lazy tempo and our t-shirts – we relaxed and enjoyed the island. Except for the day below where Karen wore a normal shirt, we both wore our COP shirts (hers = GRANDMA SAYS….) We averaged about 40 chats per day….all positive and fun. My Spanish improved with so many chats en español.
COPs 2nd year stats to date:
TV appearances: 12 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable)
Newspaper stories: 6 dailes, 3 weeklies
Radio appearances: 6
Published LTE: 4
25 presentations to Congressional staffers
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. We work to repeal federal prohibition. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
