Posted January 21st, 2011 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
How did you do that?: I was flabbergasted *(never happened in five years), when for a normal ‘meet and greet’ presentation with a Senate Republican staffer, her boss –Legislative Director -invited himself. As always when I meet a staffer & give them my background, I always include my Long Ride for a head snap…. As you can imagine, the boss dominated the chat for the first 25 minutes. He then turned to his colleague and asked if she had any questions or concerns about my presentation. She said, “I want to know how you rode your horse across America!”
I gave her a one minute overview of 23 miles/day, six days week for six months — park the horse in baseball fields, in the woods, tied to a tree & with much help from strangers, it was a piece of cake. Smile. For a bonus I showed her the February Reason magazine which has Misty and me as the centerfold. And the meeting ended.
BTW, the LD and I hit it off well, he agreed in theory with the COP position and said he would recommend to the boss to sign onto a Senate repeal marijuana prohibition bill. Given 22,000 lobbyists in DC, being remembered is the ‘coin of the realm.’ My hat and Long Ride continue to pay dividends.
Webb Commission take two or ¡Homework!: I attended the first organizational meeting of the year for a new National Crime Commission bill. After I spoke of the need to emphasize this year the “Thin Blue Line getting thinner” reality, the chairwoman volunteered me to put together a fact sheet showing police and fire layoffs. Sadly, using google ‘police layoffs ’ and add any state, too many stories appear. On the other hand, it strengthens our case to end at least marijuana prohibition ASAP.
*flabbergasted = ich war platt
*coin of the realm = Gold Standard
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
46 presentations to Congressional staffers: (9 this week)
2 VIP (Member of Congress) presentations:
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Your support keeps the COPs voice loud and strong in the halls of the United States Congress. We 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 send a check to:
COP
POB 772
Buckeystown, MD 21717
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, timide, 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 14th, 2011 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
End game coming: This Wednesday I arranged* a meeting with Congressman Polis’ office (D-CO) which ended up including reps all DC based organization which want to repeal federal prohibition of marijuana. (MPP, SSDP, DPA, NORML and COPs). After 30 minutes with the primary aide on this issue, the Congressman came in for the last 20 minutes. More happened here which I can not disclose.*
Early this session it will happen(late this month, early Feb.) & I will let you know immediately when the US House has a bill to repeal fed MJ prohibition. Also, I will take that bill to the 6 (six) Senate offices whose aides have said they will bring it to their boss for a possible companion bill in the Senate. I am encouraged that so many Senate offices will even consider this… and I am just getting started on the Senate side. Recall I work the Senate from December to March & the House the rest of the year.
Keep in mind = don’t get too excited >> from introduction to the President signing a bill nearly always takes a number of years. On the other hand, this type of bill, when signed by the President, will shift the battle to the States – where it belongs. And we will go home to Texas.
*in the past I would NOT toot my horn about what I did but now that I have raise $$, with reluctance, I will start doing this.
Homework done and turned in: This week I gave 3 briefing papers (1. How youth are harmed by MJ prohibition. 2) How prohibition hurts business. 3) How prohibition hurts America in general) to the legislative aide of a New England Senator I mentioned before the New Year. Main paper on MJ is at the bottom (8 minute read). Many thanks to Eric Sterling, Jerry Epstein, Paul Armentano, Steve Fox and Dr. Mitch Earlywine for their review and many edits which made this effort shine like a new penny, IMHO.
I will let you know if the aide passed it on the prohibitionist Senator.
*disclose – teilen
A star is born: A staffer I did not know stopped me in the Longworth café this week, saying he had seen my foto in Reason magazine (February edition). Ah shucks. Here is the foto by the way which was spread over two entire pages. The foto is so large, you can read the buckle: LONG RIDER
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 (one this week)
37 presentations to Congressional staffers: one this week
2 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.
Howard
Harm to Youth Due to Marijuana Prohibition
SUMMARY: Although the intent of marijuana prohibition was to limit the ability of youth to buy it, this result has not been achieved, quite the contrary. Since 1975 teens in government surveys report that marijuana is readily available and easier to obtain than alcohol. Teen use has recently overtaken their consumption of tobacco. The strength of marijuana has increased. By these metrics, prohibition has been at best a failure and perhaps made the situation worse.
As law enforcement has increased its marijuana arrests (new record number of arrests for simple possession in 2009), the result has been more teens have suffered and died than need be. Detectives assigned to marijuana enforcement arrest no pedophiles and those possessing child porn. Road officers have caught fewer deadly DUIs, due to more and more time spent searching cars for marijuana. Teens have been murdered after they took the job option of selling marijuana. College tuition has risen dramatically in the past twenty (20) years, as tax money was diverted to increase prison populations due in part to marijuana prohibition. Those teens unlucky enough to have been caught are burdened by a life-long, drug-related criminal record which restricts their ability to get a job, a student loan, a license, a credit card etc.
Personal Safety. Child cyber pornography continues to be a serious threat to little boys and girls in America. Per Senator Biden’s hearing in April of 2008, law enforcement so under-resources this problem that only 2% (12,000) of these criminals were caught in 2008. Per recent news, that figure is now 4% per year are caught. At the end of 2008 about 190,000 little boys and girls were still in the home of a sexually abusive parent or guardian. This while the police arrested 800,000 for marijuana crimes, mostly possession.
Many teens are subjected to random drug tests to play sports, etc. They all know that consuming alcohol or even meth and cocaine on Friday night will allow them a ‘clean’ urine on Monday morning. Marijuana, since it is fat soluble, will show up on a urine test on Monday. Thus, many teens choose the much more dangerous alcohol over the use of marijuana.
Prohibition creates tens of thousands of part and full-time jobs for teens to sell pot. No legal job available to teens is as easy to obtain or as rewarding. Teens sell pot for profit and or to be popular with their peer group. This can end up with them having a criminal record, in prison or dead. Although not broken down by drug, SAMHSA reported in 2005 that 900,000 teens were selling prohibited drugs.
The vast majority of teens who are getting high or “partying” choose between alcohol and marijuana. Marijuana use is actually safer than alcohol for the user, those nearby and the community. Consumption does not provoke aggressive or violent behavior. On average, those teens who use marijuana in place of alcohol have better health outcomes: no overdose deaths from marijuana; far fewer homicides, suicides, rapes, assaults, car crashes, and other problems caused by drinking & not by marijuana. We need to make unwanted but inevitable experimentation less risky.
Marijuana use does NOT increase use of harder drugs. The last federal study concluded that marijuana was the “terminus” illegal drug for 72 percent of users. The most recent research in 1999 done by 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.” 96% of marijuana smokers never try heroin. One of prohibition’s greatest dangers is having a teen meet a drug dealer to buy marijuana and be offered a low cost or free sample of drugs like heroin. Or, the dealer puts meth or heroin into the marijuana to hook the teen on the much more dangerous and expensive drug. This does happen.
NOTE: If marijuana were legal for adults, teens would buy it from older siblings or other adults, much like alcohol reaches teens. This would continue to be against the law, similar to an adult can not furnish alcohol to a minor. The advantage of legal, regulated and taxed marijuana is the adult would provide the teen pure marijuana inspected by the government. The older sibling would not offer the teen other drugs for sale, certainly no free or low cost samples of hard drugs.
Also, the consumption of alcohol causes the death of more teens than all other drugs combined. If marijuana were legal for adults, educators could put the proper focus on what is by far the biggest drug threat to teens – alcohol.
Minority youth are severely impacted: Studies show these groups use at about same rate, but youth of color are stopped, searched and arrested at rates as high as four times the white rate. Former police chiefs – George Napper of Atlanta, Anthony Bouza of Minneapolis and Norman Stamper of Seattle – have criticized this outrageous feature of marijuana enforcement.
Prohibition causes disrespect for all laws. Teens see the hypocrisy of marijuana being illegal, while cigarettes, alcohol, Oxycodone, 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. The long-term damage to our society of developing contempt for law and authority at an early age is hard to measure, but evolves into lack of respect for government and the Congress, and admiration for outlaws.
Educational costs. Tuition costs at colleges are much higher, as states fund narcotics units and then build more prisons to hold those they arrest. Thus fewer young people can attend or they are burdened with huge debts upon graduation. Many students now graduate with the equivalent of a home mortgage.
The best studies have shown that the criminal justice system in 2009 spent about 12 billion to enforce marijuana prohibition and about 6 billion in taxes was not collected from its sale. This money was unavailable for pressing public purposes of all kinds. The money is truly lost in the sense that its expenditure fails to accomplish any worthwhile public purpose.
Long term consequences: President Jimmy Carter told Congress in 1977, “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this clearer than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.” This ball and chain follows the young person all the way thru life, decreasing their ability to obtain good employment and wages. When Michael Phelps the swimmer was arrested as a drunk driver, that crime was no problem for Kellogg. However, his smoking cannabis lost him a million dollar contract.
Has marijuana prohibition protected our teens from using it? No. Those who support prohibition have testified that marijuana would become easier for teens to buy, if legal for adults. The federal government reports that marijuana “is readily available to America’s youth.” How could it become easier to obtain than “readily available?”
Would more teens try it, if it were legal for adults i.e. send the wrong message? No. Medical doctors –board certified in addiction psychology – have stated that at least as many teens try marijuana because of the glamour and excitement factors created by its prohibition, as are deterred by it being illegal for everyone.
Respectfully submitted,
Detective Officer Howard Wooldridge (retired)
Posted January 10th, 2011 by hiwayhowie
COPS on the Hill
Year in review:
Here are the cold statistics of what COPs accomplished in its first fiscal year. None of this was possible without the monetary support of COP members. It was always a humbling moment, when the check came in or PayPal sent a report of a donation. You believed that drug prohibition was a serious national problem & COPs was an effective vehicle to end it at the federal level. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Of the 106 persons who receive this newsletter, half have become members of Citizens Opposing Prohibition.
From cold stats to how does that translate into change? The old adage is true: it is not what you know but who you know. After five years of wearing out boot leather, the cowboy hat and anti-prohibition message have penetrated all offices of the Congress. An aide called out this week, “Hey, I saw your picture in Reason magazine.” Several Congressmen on judiciary will give me 1-2 minutes of their time after a hearing because they listened to me in the past make sense. I have put together a list of 94 House offices whose aide said they he would bring a positive recommendation to the Member, when a marijuana repeal bill is submitted in a few weeks. This is the fruit of my labor and your support.
Your support for COPs meant–
Final COP First Year Stats 2009-2010:
443 presentations to Congressional Staffers
7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)
37 published Letters to the Editor (I am now 8th on the list of the most prolific writers)
Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended. C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing.
12 radio shows
8 TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision, NBC, cable)
Since the end of our financial year, I was asked by Pulitzer prize-winning & nationally syndicated columnist talk show host Kathleen Parker to provide background information for a segment on drug prohibition. Andre Oppenheimer whose Spanish language show reaches 60 million households in Latin America (per his website), had me on his show again. My horse Misty and I were on television 11 times in California, 9 newspaper articles and 5 radio programs. Reason magazine published an article on Prop 19 which started with us as a two page ‘centerfold’ while we worked a corner in Redding, California. I have met with two Congressmen to discuss strategy in 2011. And of course I am in the halls of Congress every week to meet with staffers from all 535 offices.
I hope and trust I have made you feel that your money has been well spent.
If you have not yet joined, this is my once a year appeal for money.
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: 5 (one this week)
36 presentations to Congressional staffers
1 VIP (Member of Congress) presentations:
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
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.
