COP on the Hill: Stories from the week of December 4 & 11, 2015
Posted December 11th, 2015 by hiwayhowie
COP on the Hill
Stories from the week of December 4 & 11, 2015
Guess who’s coming to lunch: Grover Norquist had a lunch special featuring the chief of a center-right think tank, AEI (AEI.org). I was already at the main table. On my left a state rep from Georgia introduced herself. On my right it turned out to be a former SEAL, Rhodes Scholar and founder of ‘The Mission Continues’, Eric Greitens, who has an excellent chance to be the next governor of Missouri.
I had good five minute chats with both of them. With Greitens I focused on him remembering one thing: Cops like MJ prohibition because of the money – wages and asset forfeiture… With the GA rep I spoke only of the need to pass a bill to allow the kids with Dravet’s Syndrome to obtain God’s medicine.
Has the time come?:Making my rounds in the Senate, I made the case to 7 staffers that, ‘in light of the massacre in San Bernardino the prohibition of marijuana is a luxury we can no longer afford.’ I asked them to see if the Member would come out forcefully to end the federal, MJ prohibition. I became quite emotional each time I made the pitch. The lunacy of thousands of my colleagues chasing a green plant, while ISIS fighters plan another massacre is driving me crazy.
Thank you: It is with deep appreciation and gratitude that with your verbal and financial support I finish another year on the Hill. A profound sense of responsibility propels me to the offices of Members of the Congress. Speaking bluntly, there are only four of us who wear out shoes and boot leather to end MJ prohibition ( for contrast – the drug companies have some 650 lobbyists ).
Bottom is a 750 word oped that was published last month in the largest newspaper in Scotland. Perhaps my best effort. They asked me to submit it.
1990 Presentations to Congressional staffers.. 07 this week
152 chats with other elected officials, state reps, senators, VIPs, etc. 03 this week
39 published interviews in major (daily) newspapers or magazine… 01 this week
5 meetings
COP stats since inception: August 2009
105 personal chats with a Member of Congress.. 0 this week
92 interviews and reports in minor media = blogs, cable TV, weekly papers, etc.. 0 this week.
23 major conferences attended – (United Nations drug conf, CPAC, LULAC, NRA, CBC, ASA, DPA, Dem & Repub. Presidential conventions., National Review, etc) this week
60 Radio Interviews.. 0 this week
82 published letters to the editor (value per MAPINC in free publicity: $80,000).. 0 this week
38 Appearances on major TV networks..this week (Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, BBC)…0 this week (BBC)
* 2 editorials in daily papers mentioning Howard’s efforts & in support of COP position
Weekly attendance at Grover Norquist’s Wednesday brunch attended by 150 conservative leaders. Named the “Grand Central Station of the Conservative Movement.”
* Consider being a member of COP at $30.00 or more per year. All contributions are tax-deductible. 30 dollars buys all the copy paper COP uses in one year. Law Enforcement’s voice in opposition to current policy is vital on the Hill to achieve a repeal of federal prohibition. COP provides that voice. www.citizensopposingprohibition.org
‘The lives and trillions of dollars sacrificed
on the altar of futile modern prohibition’
SINCE the official beginning
of the drug war in 1971, the
law-enforcement community
in the United States has spent
just over $1 trillion. Tens of
thousands of citizens have died, sacrificed
on the altar of this modern prohibition.
Millions have suffered from a
drug arrest, which haunts them forever
– and the difference on the streets?
Federal research shows drugs are
cheaper, stronger and more “readily
available” to America’s youth.
As a street cop and detective in the
1970s, 80s and 90s, I had a ringside seat
to this unfolding social disaster.
Like most wars, the drug war began
with a high moral purpose – to save
people from some harmful drugs – and
a modest budget. As drugs remained
readily available, government’s response
ratcheted up in the 80s – mandatory
minimums, hundreds of prisons
built, civil asset forfeiture, no-knock
drug raids, drug war exceptions to rules
of search and seizure. We received any
and all laws we asked for to make this
prohibition effective. All for naught.
As an officer, I witnessed a large
number of officers spend much of their
patrol time searching car after car for
an arrest mostly involving cannabis.
Back at the donut shop, they said they
found personal amounts of cannabis
in every tenth car. These officers knew
that command liked pot busts due to
good headlines, as well as the money
and vehicle seizures related to a drug
arrest. The motto “Protect and Serve”
became a quaint, meaningless phrase.
Informally, we became a profession of
“Search and Arrest”.
A chat over a beer with a friend in
1987 illustrates well the failure of this
strategy/policy. Christine had become
a narcotics officer the year before. Excitedly,
she recounted some war stories
of good busts, lots of dope confiscated,
over 100 drug houses shut down,
etc. Into the second beer, she became
a bit quiet. She said it was so discouraging.
Despite all the team’s efforts,
the number of drug houses in the city
had increased and the street prices
of all drugs had dropped – indicating
over-supply.
Police officers learned quickly the absolute
futility of our efforts. Drug dealers
accepted, as a condition of their employment,
death and long prison terms.
Thus, the massive punishment – mandatory
minimums – had zero impact on
the drug trade. Every dealer arrested,
shot or killed was quickly replaced.
AS WE saw the uselessness
of our actions, many narcotics
officers became ever
more aggressive, to compensate
for no tangible
gains. They approached citizens in
large cities, almost demanding they be
allowed to buy drugs. Confrontations
often led to violence and the death of
citizens. Now, in 2015, we watch in
horror as officers shoot and kill someone
suspected of selling a few grams of
cannabis.
To maintain the public’s interest and
financial support, $80 billion in 2015,
we put on a dog and pony show for the
cameras. Every couple of weeks we laid
out a table full of guns, a table covered
in drugs and another overflowing with
money. This to demonstrate yet another
“victory” in our efforts. In the background,
we would show a dozen people
arrested during the drug bust. As the
new century started, we stopped doing
this, as the public accepted the fact that
all drug busts were without meaning.
In the 21st century, the ground is
fertile in Scotland and elsewhere to begin
the debate on how to treat dangerous
drugs. The public knows that this
drug prohibition is an abject failure.
As reported in the 2010 Lancet report,
these prohibited drugs are dangerous,
even deadly. That is not the issue. The
fundamental question is how does the
involvement of the police and prisons
improve anything?
Luckily, the creator of the Drug War
– the USA – is experiencing a fundamental
shift in the public’s attitude
towards drug abuse. Why? Starting in
the 2000s with methamphetamine, and
more recently with heroin, white people
are now the vast majority of citizens
using and abusing illegal, hard drugs.
When mostly people of colour were being
arrested and/or dying from illegal
drugs, the establishment did not care
or passed laws to lock them up. The hypocrisy
stinks.
As a lobbyist in the US Congress
since 2005, I have challenged each
member to state one benefit, one advantage,
of drug prohibition. Not one
has ever been able to. Their silence is
deafening.
Howard Wooldridge is a retired
Michigan police detective who has
campaigned for an end to the war on drugs
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