Posted May 11th, 2010 by hiwayhowie
As a police officer and property room manager at a small Michigan police department, I can heartily agree with Radley Balko’s excellent essay on the forfeiture issue (“The Forfeiture Racket,” February). When we went to a seminar around 1986 on how to seize money, cars, and houses, the instructor heavily emphasized that the presence of drugs was not needed, just cash. When command and our local prosecutor in Clinton County figured out this was a cash cow, officers were encouraged to spend more time looking for drugs—which meant less time for the deadly DUI and reckless drivers.
The last 25 years of police action enforcing drug prohibition has undermined public safety and left a large stain on our professional image. Despite that, money talks and we continue to steal from citizens who deserve better. Please urge your politicians to repeal all drug prohibition laws.
Det. Howard Wooldridge (retired)
Posted May 2nd, 2010 by hiwayhowie
By Jessica Musicar, Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Americans are being driven to drink. That’s how lobbyist and retired police detective Howard Wooldridge views marijuana prohibition.
‘The irony here is, marijuana is a much safer drug for the user and their family. And we’re driving people to drink because drinking it’s legal,” Wooldridge said. ‘It’s obviously counterproductive.”
In 18 years in law enforcement, Wooldridge said, he responded to zero violent crimes sparked by marijuana use. Compare that with 1,300 calls on homicides, suicides, rapes, assaults, and child abuse cases involving alcohol.
Wooldridge will be featured Friday night, along with two other speakers, during a presentation at the North Bend Public Library on medical marijuana and other marijuana issues.
Wooldridge contends the war on drugs has wasted a trillion dollars, not to mention law enforcement man-hours.
‘Every hour spent chasing a Willie Nelson or Rush Limbaugh, we have less time for the DUI or the child molester,” he said. If marijuana prohibition ends, ‘We would free up serious amounts of police resources to go after real problems.”
Sponsored by Mothers Against Misuse & Abuse, the event is part of a tour of Oregon to discuss drug policy issues, said tour director Jennifer Burbank. Founded in the early 1980s and based in The Dalles, MAMA describes itself a drug education group.
‘We think that our current drug policy, the war on drugs, is causing more harm than good,” Burbank said.
The presentation also will include a presentation on medical marijuana by Alice Ivany, a Oregon medical cannabis patient since 2001.
Ivany, who suffers from chronic pain associated with an amputation, contends Oregon needs more medical marijuana dispensaries. She said when she first joined the program, it took her about 17 months to get her medication.
She is one of the chief petitioners for an initiative to establish a state-regulated medical marijuana supply system. Along with giving medical marijuana users a safe place to buy the drug, the dispensaries would generate revenue for marijuana research, drug treatment and other services.
Posted May 2nd, 2010 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Teacher becomes the Student: About a year ago I drove my motorcycle to downtown Washington to have coffee with former JAG* officer, federal prosecutor and retired superior court judge James Gray, a LEAP speaker. During our 90 minute chat he scribbled down* two pages of notes, remarking he liked my sound bites and my articulation of the issues.
Thursday this week I was in the studios of the southern Oregon NPR* radio station in Medford, speaking for 30 minutes. Jim followed me with another 30 minutes of discussion on drug prohibition. Jim was eloquent,* especially how he described how kids sell to kids. As the program ended, I was thrilled to realize that he had become a more effective speaker than me. I have adopted his style of describing how‘kids selling to kids’ issue. Smiles all around.
On the road again: This week and next I am on a speaking tour, sponsored by MAMAS.org in western Oregon. Sandee Burbank befriended Misty and me in 2003, generating good media coverage our last 2 weeks of the first trip across America. When she called me late last year to help out, I just asked when I should show up and for how long. We are averaging about 4 events per day, moving the issues of prohibition.
Who brought the donuts?: Yesterday in Eugene I was waiting to speak to a crowd at the federal courthouse. Jackie (our driver) ascertained that two police officers were on our side and then directed them to me. The three of us chatted for five minutes as the local TV crew filmed our conversation. Several in the crowd later remarked it was so inspiring to see me talking to uniformed officers. WTG Jackie!
*JAG – Anwalt beim Bundeswehr
*NPR –National Public Radio
*eloquent – redegewandt; ausdrucksvoll
COP stats since August 2009:
348 presentations to Congressional Staffers
7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)
33 published Letters to the Editor (that we know of)
Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended. C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing
11 radio shows
6 TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. It is tax-deductible. 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 April 20th, 2010 by hiwayhowie
Regarding marijuana prohibition, the government has an interest, nay a duty, to protect its citizens from harmful subtances they might put in their body. Thus that government imposes punishment for doing so, in the name of protecting the citizen. This is a rational course of action, if that country is run by nanny-state liberals who believe the government is the solution to all problems.
Prohibition is a policy whereby the government threatens its citizens with punishment, backed up by the police, prosecutors and prisons, for anyone who steps outside the box of alcohol, tobacco, Prozac and Valium. Yes, in regards to our bodies, they are owned by the Big Brother.
Detective/Officer Howard Wooldridge ( retired )
Drug Policy Specialist, COP
Posted April 20th, 2010 by hiwayhowie
As a retired police detective working full-time in Washington, D.C., since 2006 to repeal federal marijuana prohibition, I appreciated your column on cannabis users ( Danehy, April 1 ). Every hour spent chasing a Michael Phelps or Willie Nelson means we catch fewer DUIs and child molesters. To arrest 800,000-odd persons for possession and sale, law enforcement spends a solid 10 million hours every year. This is not funny. This is a horrific waste of our time, and innocent citizens are hurt and killed as we chase Willie onto his back porch.
My law-enforcement colleagues and, especially, their lobbyists here in D.C. focus on paychecks and job security, not public safety, not crime levels, not victims of crime. For the 800,000 cops in this country, this is all about money. Ditto the prison guards.
Howard Wooldridge
Drug policy specialist, Citizens Opposing Prohibition
