COPs on the Hill – Stories from the Week of February 5, 2009

COPs on the Hill

 Stories from the Week of February 5, 2009

 Transition: This week marked the transition from the Senate back to the House.  Since mid-November,  I have  met with staffers from 85 offices in the Senate.  I will continue to politely pester* the remaining 15 for 10 minutes of their time.

 Gut feelings* confirmed:   One of my first House meetings this week was with the aide to a very influential Republican office.   During our congenial* 30 minute chat ( our third) we discussed the events and changes since Obama took office.   I told him how so many R staffers had declared themselves Ron Paul type Republicans and that federal prohibition of marijuana should end now.   He nodded and from his informal chats the past year,  agreed that the vast majority of young R staffers were ready to legalize marijuana. 

 Then I asked him the question I will ask all aides this year, “Would you be willing to bring a Repeal Marijuana Prohibition’ bill to your boss and urge the Member to  support it?”   His answer was guarded (as one might expect) and took several minutes.   He ended by saying he might.  The fish is halfway in the boat.  Small steps.

 I wish every office had this:  In the entry area of  (R-GA) Congressman and Doctor Broun’s office is a plaque that reads:   I am committed to protecting the constitutional rights and pocketbooks of every American. I will apply the following four-way test to every piece of legislation that comes before the House for a vote:

• 1) Is it Right/Moral?
• 2) Is it Constitutional?
• 3) Is it Necessary?
• 4) Is it Affordable?  

Based on this test, he voted YES for States’ Rights for Medical Marijuana two years ago.  

Could this be the event which changes Mexico?

Massacre Of 16 Juarez Students Is Latest Shock In Numbed City

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Saturdays massacre in Juárez, Mexico, of 16 high school and college students created a shock wave that continues to rumble across a city numbed by years of brutal and unstoppable violence, reports the El Paso Times. Twelve other victims are still hospitalized with gunshot wounds, four in critical condition.  

El Paso Times 

T-shirts for sale: The shirts seen at the bottom are now for sale.  The cost is 20 dollars which includes shipping and handling.  Just send me an email with size, type and USPS mailing address.   Spring is almost here and it is time to cause trouble!

 Blog oped: The consequences of drug use and abuse doubling, if we legalized & regulated all drugs:   1000 word essay below, if you are interested.

 *gut feelings = etwas wie ‘rein gefühlsmaßige Reaktion’

* pester = plagen, höflich stören

*congenial  = ansprechend

 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.

 Thank you, 

 Howard

 This interview just hit 50 websites and more.

 Legalize all Drugs=Use & Abuse Double: The Consequences

 By Frosty Wooldridge

 http://denver.yourhub.com/Denver/Blogs/Your-Voice/Blog~726630.aspx?IsDraft=False

 Denver Post, Your Hub, February 4, 2010

 After the first 19 interviews with my brother Police Officer and Detective Howard Wooldridge of Lansing, Michigan (retired) concerning the “War on Drugs”, thousands of readers responded.  U.S. taxpayers do not understand the incredible deception perpetrated on them by the Drug War.  You might even term it a “racket” by those who stand in the power corridors of Washington, DC.

“Legalize drugs and all hell and ruin will plague the USA as drug use/abuse doubles!” said Officer Howard Wooldridge. “The sky will fall in.  The Chicken Little’s aka The Prohibition Crowd have used this mantra to great effect the past 15 years.   Though competent addiction experts and a 2008 Zogby poll state that use and abuse of hard drugs will remain fairly constant, what if the experts are wrong and the prohibition crowd is correct?   What if millions of us become so stupid that we use heroin, meth and crack when they become legal?   What would be the total change in the USA, if we legalized, regulated and taxed currently prohibited drugs and this caused use and abuse to double? 

“Let’s start with marijuana.  Currently about 20 million enjoy cannabis as a recreational alternative to alcohol.   Let’s take as a given that few teetotalers will start using marijuana.  Thus when 20 million citizens switch from drinking alcohol to smoking pot, this would be a net benefit for themselves, their family and their community.  How so?  Ask any cop or writer of country/western songs.   Alcohol use provokes in almost all of us a bit of reckless to very reckless behavior (saying something one should not have, to picking a fight with someone twice your size).  For a significant minority alcohol use provokes aggressive, even violent behavior.  In this fashion a doubling of marijuana use will reduce homicide, suicide, rape, child/spouse abuse and assault.  

“Wait. What about 20 million more people becoming lazy, losing their jobs, going on welfare, and robbing banks to live?   Everyone reading this essay has either used marijuana or knows many in the family or friends who have.   Do some become permanently lazy?  Yes, the same as becoming an alcoholic often means a life without meaningful work.   However, the overwhelming majority of marijuana users are like you and me; hard-working and hard-playing, tax-paying successful doctors, lawyers and such.  From the past three US Presidents to half of Congress and captains of industry, many have used pot and gone on to become successful.   Tell Michael Phelps, Willie Nelson or five time all NFL pro center for the Dallas Cowboys Mark Stepnoski about being too spaced out on cannabis to achieve greatness.

“A couple of hundred million times this year mostly young people are going to use an hallucinogen like X or LSD.    There are almost no accounts of users stealing, robbing or becoming prostitutes to pay for their drug of choice.  Yes, a couple of dozen die from X use (too much or too little water is a common reason) and that is a tragedy.   Of course many more will die this year while riding their bicycle (about 2.5 per day, oops, they failed to wear a helmet).   More Americans will die while riding a horse than die from X.    In order to protect citizens from harm, should the government prohibit the riding of bicycles and horses?   Tell your politicians.  Now, double the use and abuse of X and LSD.  Two times roughly zero is how much?

“The feds tell us that perhaps a million of us use meth-amphetamine and a couple of hundred die every year because of abuse issues and overdose.  What happens when that number goes to two million?  From what I know, the majority of users are either trying to stay awake on a 12 hour shift or want to lose weight.   This crowd would have access to the same 5 mg amphetamine pills we give Air Force pilots to go on long missions.  With standard doses users would gain control over their intake & improve their odds of not becoming addicted, same as our military pilots.   Of course some will become addicted (talk to Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson after you die) but overall, death and abuse rates should fall for this group.

“What about those who love the sexual kick that meth provides?  This crowd may switch to the sexual kick that cocaine does provide.   If they stay with the meth, they will suffer long term health consequences.   If their number doubles, they will also suffer.  On the flip side, there will be no meth labs in America and no children eating Cheerios where mom and dad made meth last night.   No houses will blow up and no expensive clean ups when meth houses are discovered.    Since children are, IMO, much more important than adults harming themselves, even a doubling of amphetamine users would be a net plus.

“Let’s take the last and ‘big ones’, cocaine and heroin, together.   Currently we believe about five million use coke and about half million use heroin.  The use of these drugs does cause significant theft crimes for some/many of the users to support their habits.  This year about 9,000 will die from overdose and an unknown number (certainly in thousands) will die from health complications associated with dirty, shared needles, etc. 

“Even as use/abuse double the USA will experience a huge drop in felony crime, as the price for a day’s supply of these drugs falls to about $3.00.   “That money can easily be made panhandling/begging for change.  Thus hundreds of thousands of homeowners will not become victims.   The number of banks and convenience stores robbed will drop by half, saving the terror and death that those employees deal with. 

“Certainly overdose deaths would fall dramatically, when users buy a product of known strength and contains no rat poison, etc.  This would save a lot of money now spent by EMS ambulances and hospital emergency rooms.   Oh, and of course the addicts live to have a chance to climb out of their addiction one day.

“Federal studies and experts state that the abuse rate for cocaine is 5-6 per cent.  Thus even a doubling of users would only increase those who abuse cocaine by about 300,000.  The abuse rate for heroin is about 70 per cent of users.  We would see about 350,000 new abusers of heroin.  Each new abuse case will be a personal and family tragedy.   On the flip side, almost no one will die of an overdose and with a robust treatment option (paid for by the taxes on other drugs & savings by cutting our prisons in half), a good many will live thru their addiction time to become clean and sober.

“The best news of all is that the 900,000 young teens currently selling these drugs off sidewalks and being shot in the process will become unemployed.    They will be forced into making chump change flipping burgers or being unemployed. What is the value of one child saved?  You tell me.  The general savings of money will amount to some 80 billion currently wasted by law enforcement to look for, arrest and incarcerate drug users and sellers.    The 120 billion we spend now on illegal drugs will go back into the taxed economy, as users have more money to buy cars, a steak in town or go to vacation in Florida.   Farmers will plant hemp and supply a growing US market for that commodity vs. the importation currently coming from Canada.   As gangs shrink and  inner cities become much quieter (far fewer 9 mm going pop, pop, pop) property values will increase and so probably investment and their jobs.  We would no longer fund our mortal enemies.  Al Qaeda and the Taliban would have to find a new source of money.  The police could concentrate on the deadly DUI and reckless drivers, saving thousands from dying on our roads.  Detectives could arrest a lot more child predators.

“The majority of Americas have admitted in polls and at the Rotary Club that Modern Prohibition is an ineffective failure.   Many see the policy as the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow..   Even if we doubled the number of drug users in this country, the pluses far outweigh the minuses.”  

“Today, my brother Howard Wooldridge heads up a task force in Washington, DC to educate and enlighten congressmen at the highest levels.  He works for a better future for all Americans.  He can be reached at:  Education Specialist, www.citizensopposingprohibition.org , Washington, DC.  He speaks at colleges, political clubs, Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions Clubs across America.  He engages citizens around the country to bring an end to the Drug War.  Check out the web site and join.  Book Wooldridge in your state! Wooldridge also presents at political conferences in Washington. Howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org

“The mission of COP is to reduce the multitude of unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition. 

“Envision a country which employs the principles of personal responsibility, personal freedom and limited/effective government toward marijuana,” Officer Wooldridge said. “I see a growing respect for the police, as they stop intruding into the decisions of adults, made in the privacy of their castles.  Teens find it as hard to buy pot as beer.  Fewer teens use it because it lost its glamour.   Imagine a land where the deadly DUI and reckless drivers kill far fewer, as officers focus on them, not the next pot bust.  Envision detectives arresting more child predators as they abandon the time spent arresting someone selling pot to an adult.  All this becomes possible, when America becomes wiser and abandons the prohibition approach to marijuana.”

Howard

Detective/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

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