COP on the Hill: Stories from the week of March 18, 2016

COP on the Hill

Stories from the week of March 18, 2016

Vienna 2016 at the UN’s CND conference:   Conference on Narcotic Drugs – meets every year in Vienna to discuss progress in creating a world free of about 6 kinds of drugs.  About 130 nations send a rep.  This trip lasted 12 days.

Two Years Ago:  I asked the UK gentleman to explain & help me understand what I was missing.  Simply put, ‘nothing is said here which does not have 5 layers of complexity far beyond drug policy.’   In other words; this is an Alice in Wonderland community.

The UK guy gave me his translation of the days’ speeches based on his 20 years of attending this conference: the tone away from ‘get tough’ – War on Drugs is a good thing — to one of human rights, treatment vs. jail and decrim are important changes to make — for him this was a major change for this gathering.   I DID feel much better after he put it all in perspective.

One small voice:  A side event at the UN this week concerned excessive prison terms for drug offenses.  I was given the chance to make this comment: ‘Yes, I support and applaud your efforts to reduce sentences.  I want to express a cautionary note.  Once you have succeeded in reducing sentences, keep in mind the great evil is anyone spending one day in prison for a drug offense.  The evil is drug prohibition and I urge you to destroy it as soon as possible.  That is the ultimate solution for much suffering in the world.’

Cripple the Terrorists?:  The last ‘side event’ of this conference was titled, ” Illicit Drug Business as a Source of Terrorism Financing.”  Two world-class professors of economics laid out the reality that the bad guys are making billions via illegal drug trade.  The UN rep tried to minimize the ugly truth of the testimony.  I was able to ask the first question.  “If the consuming nations legalized and regulated all drugs, as to destroy the illicit market, how much would this change cripple terrorists around the world?”

And the next 20 minutes became a heated, nearly angry debate about how much ending prohibition would hurt the terrorists.  Since the terrorists in Europe earn only about Two (2) billion dollars, the UN official blew off the entire concept of legalizing drugs to help in anti-terrorist funding.  It was a powerful hour and the 70 older attendees were listening intently to the experts.  This event alone may have justified me coming to Vienna, IMHO…..and of course 3 days later the bad guys blew up the airport and metro in Brussels.

Published LTE in the Washington Post on March 2:

DRUG LAWS AND GUN DEATHS

Regarding the Feb.  28 editorial “Gun violence: 7,548 incidents and counting”:

As a retired detective, I do not understand why the editorial board failed to mention the huge role that drug prohibition plays in the deaths of so many of our youths.  Young people are shot-sometimes shot dead-every day because of their employment in the drug trade in the United States.

Given the justified concern for the death toll from guns, why continue to support our nearly 50-year-long, trillion-dollar, highly unsuccessful modern prohibition?

Howard Wooldridge, Adamstown

This week’s stats:

187 chats with other elected officials, state reps, senators, VIPs, etc.     18 this week = UN reps

24 major conferences attended –  (United Nations drug conf, CPAC, LULAC, NRA, CBC, ASA, DPA, Dem & Repub. Presidential conventions., National Review,  etc)  01 this week

130 interviews and reports in minor media =     01 this week.

63 Radio Interviews..  02 this week

  COP stats since inception: August 2009

2149 Presentations to Congressional staffers.. this week

120 personal chats with a Member of Congress..  0 this week

42 published interviews/foto in major (daily) newspapers or magazine… 0 this week

62 Appearances/Interviews on major TV/Radio/Print media..this week (Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, BBC, CNN, NPR)…02  this week   ( NBC twice )

82 published letters to the editor (value per MAPINC in free publicity: $80,000).. 0 this week

*   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