Stories from the week of October 30, 2009

 Howard on the Hill

Stories from the week of October 30, 2009

I don’t know my audience any more:      On Monday in New York City Karen and I were part of the 300 person audience for the taping of the Daily Show with John Stewart.  We were wearing our legalize t-shirts and sure enough the warm-up comic noticed and that resulted in a 90 second conversation with all 300 listening.  

When John came out for the pre-show question and answer time, I was the first called upon.  I asked a question if the Nobel Committee had given President Obama the peace prize in order to influence future American foreign policy decisions.  John’s reaction was WTF!!!!*   After responding, he slowly read outloud  my ‘legalize drugs’ shirt and asked me why.  We had an excellent 45 second conversation.  Two of his staff asked for my business card and I gave it to two others.  Whatever happens, it was a hoot.*

When he started the show, he stated, “I don’t know my audience any more.” 

Breaking Bread:   While visiting Niagara Falls (Karen for the first time), John Gayder, one of LEAP’s Founding Five and current serving police officer, treated us to dinner and a good chat.   John left the Board of Directors this past January for personal reasons.  He is missed on all levels.

A day later we treated Epping, New Hampshire – 11 year veteran police officer Brad Jardis to lunch.  Since appearing in the state’s largest newspaper this past spring, he has been harassed and bullied by command, no doubt to pressure him into quitting.  This man’s quiet strength is an inspiration to me and all of our profession.  His chief just suspended him for 10 days…time to figure out what to do next.

It is marijuana policy stupid!!  Last fall Eric Sterling, my mentor and President of Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (www.cjpf.org) wrote a memo to all in reform urging a focus on marijuana prohibition.  It occurred to me only this month that I am no longer bound by LEAP’s directive to ask for a bill to repeal all drug prohibition at one time.  Thus, I am following Eric’s advice.  While COPs keeps an eye to the eventual repeal of all federal drug prohibition, going forward into 2010, I will focus like a laser on marijuana.  I have changed my foto on all emails (see below) to reflect that.

*WTF = What the Fu..!!! = was für eine Frage ist das!!!                                                                           

*hoot = hat Spaß gemacht

Consider being a member of COP at $30.00 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. 

Thank you,

Howard

Make checks payable to:

Citizens Opposing Prohibition Inc

PO Box 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717-0772

Officer Howard  Wooldridge (retired)

Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org

Washington, DC

817-975-1110 Cell

howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org

Stories from the week of October 23, 2009

Howard on the Hill

Stories from the week of October 23, 2009

Now it gets ugly:*  I attended one of many strategy sessions to move the Webb Commission Bill onto the President’s desk.   The woman who is coordinating reported that law enforcement groups were lobbying Members hard to defeat the bill.    Others at the table made suggestions on how my profession might be persuaded to accept or promote the bill.  I shook my head.

 I related my 30 minute meeting my first month on the job in December 2005 with the FOP –Fraternal Order of Police.   LE – Law Enforcement lobbyists are simply doing their job (looking out for the best interests of their members)…which is what all lobbyists do.  The good of the country, etc is completely unimportant.   LE will lose buckets of money and jobs will be lost permanently, when we repeal prohibition.   These lobbyists are not ignorant nor evil, just doing what their members want.

 Secondarily and still important, LE does not want to wake up one day and realize that all the deaths, injuries & corruption the profession has suffered meant nothing in the big picture.*  Of course this will happen one day, just as soldiers from Viet Nam woke up to such a jarring* reality.

 The wind at our back:  This week we all celebrated President Obama’s written instructions to federal LE; essentially no time spent to seek and arrest those who use, produce or sell cannabis for medicinal purposes in the 14 states which have a legal, regulated system.   This is a tremendous change for those patients who continued to fear that federal officers would invade their homes, arrest them and take away their children.  Bravo Obama….and the thousands who have labored for nearly 40 years to see this moment.   A moment of silence for those who fell before seeing this day.   Think Susan B. Anthony.

 Website:   The COP website is now done.  Please take a look and feedback is always welcome.  My deepest thanks and gratitude to Dwight Maskew of Colorado.   As a volunteer, he used his knowledge and sense of style to put it together and then walked me thru how to maintain it, etc.  Go to: https://www.citizensopposingprohibition.org/

 Personal note:  Karen and I are off to Niagara Falls and into Canada next week.  Next chapter in this saga will be on November 6.

 *ugly = hier – übel

*jarring = störend

*big picture = allgemeine Bedeutung des Lebens?? …doch sehr  schwierig zu übersetzen

 Consider being a member of COP at $30.00 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. 

 Thank you,

 Howard

 Make checks payable to:

Citizens Opposing Prohibition Inc

PO Box 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717-0772

Officer Howard  Wooldridge (retired)

Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org

Washington, DC

817-975-1110 Cell

howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org

Citizens Opposing Prohibition – Become a Member

PO Box 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717-0772

COP on the Hill: Stories from the week of October 16, 2009

Howard on the Hill

Stories from the week of October 16, 2009 

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know:

Case #1:  I wrote a Letter to the Editor to the Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper.  I sent a copy of it to a reporter that interviewed me in 2005, as I rode thru Cleveland.   Here was her response:

 “Nice to hear from you again, and good to know you’re still at it.

I’ll take a look at the LTE choices and see if I can’t put a bug in someone’s ear.

Be well, and rub Misty’s nose for me.”

 BTW, I have had at least 181 LTEs published, a value of some $180,000 according to the Media Awareness Project. 

Case #2:  At a House Foreign Affairs sub-committee hearing on Thursday, a Mexican network,  TV reporter I met last year saw me in the hall.  He brought over a reporter for a Colombian network & introduced us.   Tres minutos màs tarde we finished an in-camera interview, exchanged cards and she promised to call for a longer interview.  ¡Qué bueno!

Imitation is the best form of flattery:*  This week the ACLU sponsored a briefing in both the House and the Senate.  C-Span covered it & you can view it at: 

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/10/13/HP/A/24240/ACLU+Discussion+on+Crack+Cocaine+Sentencing.aspx

 I ask my question at the 47 minute mark which you can go to directly (see COP at work).  My question dealt with the law being ineffective.

 Two hours later the same panel spoke to over a 100 in the House.  One of the panel members changed two of his five minute presentation to reflect my question and the answer I received earlier in the Senate briefing.   It was as effective, as if I had been on the panel. 

 Police Mis-conduct:   I thought you would find this as interesting as I did.    The evidence is over-whelming that  police corruption in enforcing prohibition is not so much we take money to look the other way.  Rather, we lie under oath to win a ‘victory’ at the cost of our honor. Experts state that at least 50% of all police corruption cases touch prohibition enforcement.   NOTE:  The US Dept of Justice stopped keeping the stats in 1984.

The most common lie that police officers tell is “I can’t recall,” according to Karen Kruger, a Maryland prosecutor who spoke Monday at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in Denver. Kruger was on a panel concerning police deception, reports PoliceOne.com. As she put it, “Why should I even go to a session entitled ‘Police Officer Lying: Is Any Deception Acceptable’? Isn’t the short answer to that ‘No’?”

She continued, “Deception during interrogations to coerce a confession – that’s just good police work – and the entire enterprise of undercover work is a complex, multi-layered deception. There are also lies justified by investigative necessity, and conduct intended to deceive that is not malicious in nature.”  About the “I don’t recall” tack, she said, “Oftentimes during internal affairs investigations an officer will remember every last detail about that day – what he had for breakfast, what uniform he was wearing, and everything else – except for that critical moment during an incident.”

*Flattery – Schmeicheln

Consider being a member of COP at $30.00 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. 

 Thank you,

 Howard

 Make checks payable to:

 Citizens Opposing Prohibition Inc

PO Box 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717-0772

Officer Howard  Wooldridge (retired)

Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org

Washington, DC

817-975-1110 Cell

howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org

Modern Prohibition/The War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional &  immoral  domestic policy since slavery and Jim Crow.

COP on the Hill: Stories from the week of October 9, 2009

Howard on the Hill

Stories from the week of October 9, 2009

It is not what you know, rather what you understand:    As I complete my third year on the Hill, I am pleased at how much I havelearned/ know.  I am able to name your states senators, how to articulate/persuade a person of any political viewpoint, what words/things to avoid, always eat with my left hand, so I can still shake hands with my clean right, etc, etc.

How much do I understand the process to change law here?   Many roads lead to Rome, so which one is best?:  the simple & long, the short and most complicated?    These are questions which haunt* me and others like me, as we do the best we can, learn, adapt and move on.

Une personne à la fois – One person at a time :

This summer I had the opportunity at the Gro ver Norquist brunch to chat for 10 minutes with 6 French conservatives (see foto below) who were making a small tour of America. They posed good, solid questions and listened intently.  

Their group leader later contacted me and asked me to respond to his questions.  He in turn put them on his blog.  Thus COP ideas have spread into conservative circles in France.  One never knows where the ripples* will go, after one throws a stone in a pond.  Quelques petits pas.

NOTE:  if you know others who English is not so good, our website on the homepage has FAQs in German, French and Spanish.

NOTE:  for those who wish to practice their French /see my level of knowledge– the Q & A are at the bottom.

*haunt = verfolgen

*ripples =kleine Welle

 Consider being a member of COP at $30.00 per year.  Add your voice to those agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. 

Make checks payable to:

Citizens Opposing Prohibition Inc

PO Box 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717-0772

“Les flics disent de légaliser la drogue. Demandez-moi pourquoi“… Alors pourquoi?

1. Pour protéger et sauver notre jeunesse  du choix à devenir un trafiquant de drogue, un poste qu’il s’ensuit le mort de quelques jeunes chaque jour.

2. Pour baisser par 50% le niveau de crime serieux.

3. Pour consacrer nos efforts à la menace publique comme les chauffards, les violeurs, etc.,

4. Pour remettre le respect du public pour mon métier qui souffre à cause de nos efforts de faire obéir la prohibition de drogue

Le gouvernement américain est engagé dans une guerre contre la drogue. Est-elle efficace ?

 Efficace?  Rien de tout.  Après 40 ans, le dépense de un trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) et l’arrestation de 40,000,000 les drogues sont meilleur marché, plus fort et beaucoup plus disponibles.  Le but de Président Nixon à 1970 étaient à faire disparaître les drogues.  Le contraire s’est réalisé. 

Quelle alternative proposez-vous?

Je pourrais prendre, comme point de départ, les réglementations en usage pour le tabac et l’alcool.   Nous recommandons une conférence d’experts pour en discuter et déterminer la réglementation appropriée.  Vous pouvez constater que le gouvernement n’a eu aucun problème à réguler l’usage de deux drogues  aux conséquences souvent fatales: le tabac et l’alcool.

Quel accueil recevez-vous?  Et de la part des Américains? Pensez-vous que l’Amérique est “prête” pour une libéralisation du commerce de drogues ?

J’ai commencé mes effort il y a 12 ans à Texas.   Mon message était très difficile d’accepter.  Actuellement presque une majorité est d’accord de légaliser au moins le cannabis.  100,000,000 ont le consumé et nous savons que le cannabis est beaucoup moins dangereux que l’alcool.

Avec la crise économique plus en plus se rendent compte que la prohibition coûte cher.  Il faut légaliser et faire des impôts au cannabis  o perdre un professeur. 

Une chose à clarifier :  la prohibition est une politique libéral….  Le gouvernement menace leurs citoyens avec punition si on consume certaines drogues.  Cette menace est soutenue avec leur police, avocats d’états el les prisons.  Je voudrais voir une politique base en ces principes :

1. Liberté personnel
2. Responsabilité personnel
3. Gouvernement limité
4. Biens personnels (c’est mon corps, pas du gouvernement à se contrôler)

 votre Tshirt, il est marqué que “Les flics disent de légaliser la drogue. Demandez-moi pourquoi“… Alors pourquoi?
Le gouvernement américain est engagé dans une guerre contre la drogue (war on drugs). Est-elle efficace ? Quelle alternative proposez vous?
Vous rencontrez les représentants au congrès pour les sensibiliser à l’échec des politiques anti-drogues. Quel accueil recevez vous?
Et de la part des Américains? Pensez-vous que l’Amérique est “prête” pour une libéralisation du commerce de drogues ?

COP on the Hill: Stories from the week of October 2, 2009

Howard on the Hill

 Stories from the week of October 2, 2009

­So easy, anyone could do it:   On Friday I had a fairly average day of six presentations.  One 30 minute chat with the legislative director of a major, Republican office set the tone for the day.   Right from the start,  he said he agreed with the COP position.  We agreed that marijuana was the ‘no-brainer’ * to start  with.    We spent the bulk of the time brain-storming* on how to persuade Members to vote for change.    

 NOTE:  the previous aide for this Member on the issue was an absolutely intractable, mean and nasty person.  This made the meeting all the sweeter.

Connecting the dots: *  On Sunday I attended a yearly, national  gathering of leaders who are concerned about mass immigration both legal and illegal and overpopulation of the country and world sponsored by the www.thesocialcontract.com   I was honored by their request to have me speak on the collision of two highly emotional polices: immigration and Modern Prohibition.   After my standard 8 minutes of how and why drug prohibition is so destructive and dysfunctional, I made the case that drug prohibition severely impedes our ability to control illegal entry of people on the southern border. 

 The 120 attendees listened and judging from the robust 15 minute Q & A*, many agreed with the COP position.  We gained allies for change.

**Note:  for my German friends I translate/help them with certain words and phrases 

*brain-storming = gemeinsame Problembewältigung

*connecting the dots = wie ein Rätzel zu lösen

*Q&A = question and answer

Consider being a member of COP at $30.00 per year.  Add your voice to those agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. 

 Make checks payable to:

 Citizens Opposing Prohibition Inc

PO Box 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717-0772

Officer Howard  Wooldridge (retired)

Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org

Washington, DC

817-975-1110 Cell

howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org