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: http://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