COPs on the Hill: Stories from the week of July 30, 2010

The wine is sweeter today:  This week the House passed by voice vote (no one heard a nay*) the Webb Criminal Justice Commission bill.    The commission will study drug prohibition and make recommendations to the Congress on whether to keep all of it, some of it, none of it, etc.   The Senate is expected (but don’t hold your breath) to pass it in September.  Medium sized step..

 As a bonus the House passed and it now goes for Obama’s signature a bill to reduce the disparity between crack and powder cocaine from 100:1 to 18:1.   This an 82% improvement not based in science (in which case it would be 1:1).   Still this will allow thousands to dealers to go free and act as a model for the states to adopt the federal standard.   Some states have already gone 1:1.

As my LEAP colleague Tom Angell pointed out, it was very significant that the Republicans did not demand a roll call vote on either bill.   “Soft on drugs/soft on crime” has been used by the Rs for decades to hurt the Dems.  On this day, they allowed good legislation to go forward without a recorded vote.

Karen and I start a week long vacation today, so no letter next week.

 Nay = nein

www.mapinc.org   considered this the best published LTE a  few weeks ago.  It was in my hometown paper. 

 LETTER OF THE WEEK

 LOST WAR ON DRUGS AND ITS CASUALTIES

 When you lie down with dogs, often you will get up with fleas.  Yet another in my profession (Megan Mattingly) has been tainted* by the enforcement of drug prohibition.  Add her to the many, many thousands who have been corrupted or killed, or who have committed suicide after being corrupted.  And for what? We in law enforcement know that every drug dealer arrested is replaced within days.  The nine suspects released (or even if they had gone to prison) are meaningless.

 A trillion tax dollars spent and 40 years of serious effort have resulted in a Maryland free of drugs? No.  Quite the contrary.  Drugs are cheaper, stronger and readily available to our teens.

 Please tell this reader again why you support this Bridge to Nowhere policy.

 Howard Wooldridge,  retired detective/officer

 Buckeystown

 Source: Frederick News Post (MD)

 Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jun 2010

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a017.html

Tainted = Makel – Spur

 COP stats since August 2009:

 443  presentations to Congressional Staffers 

7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)

38 published Letters to the Editor ( one more this week)

Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended.  C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing. 

12  radio shows 

8  TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision, NBC, cable)

Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more 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.  Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.

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.

COPs on the Hill: Stories from the week of July 23, 2010

COPs on the Hill

 Stories from the week of July 23, 2010

I am a spy:  Searching for allies on our issue is a 24/7 vigilance* in Washington.   As you know, drug prohibition touches upon many other issues from foreign policy to terrorism to immigration.  Thus I attended a meeting at the OSI (Open Society Institute) this week, where the panel urged a policy based on open borders, amnesty, citizenship, etc.   The seminar was well-attended and a Congressional staffer happened to sit next to me.

 During Question and Answer I brought up the point that since the first priority of federal borders agents is drugs, the goal of a ‘secure border’ remains an elusive* goal.   NOTE:  both liberal and conservative Members speak publicly of the need for no illegal entry i.e. a secure border.  Two hours later we discovered we were both from Texas.  She said she had been sent by her Texas Member to spy on the seminar to learn what the liberals were thinking.   We had a short chat on my issue and parted company.

 I am humbled and honored:   The COP fiscal year ends on July 31.  The stats below will record our first year’s efforts.  So many of you have become members of COPs and given generously.   Each time I found a check in the post office box or received a notice from PayPal, I was grateful and energized by the support.   Your support  kept  a police voice/perspective in Washington, DC and to carry the message of anti-prohibition to all the Member offices .      Thank you.  Thank you so much.

*Vigilance = Wachsamkeit

• Elusive = schwer faßbar

 COP stats since August 2009:

 443  presentations to Congressional Staffers (6 more this week)

7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)

37 published Letters to the Editor (that we know of- one more this week)

Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended.  C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing. (one hearing this week)

12  radio shows 

8  TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision, NBC, cable)

Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more 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.  Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.

 Howard

Published LTE: Washington Times (July 19) –MARIJUANA BAN KEEPS US LESS SAFE

As a street cop who worked the trenches of the drug war spanning three decades, I heartily agree with the observations of Sutton Stokes ( “Is marijuana legalization finally on the march in the U.S.?” Communities, Tuesday ).  The prohibition of marijuana and the subsequent arrest of 800,000 citizens, mostly for personal use, means less time for deadly DUI offenders.  When detectives are flying around in helicopters trying to find green plants, they are missing the pedophiles who are in the Internet chat rooms making contact with our young teens.  We have all seen NBC’s “To Catch a Predator.” Police labs are not opening 400,000 rape kits and putting the DNA in the computer because proving the green stuff is marijuana is more of a priority.

This is insane.  We are doing a poor job of protecting our little boys and girls and women in order to make the safe, easy and lucrative bust of a peaceful pot smoker.  Will we ever become as wise as our grandparents and repeal this prohibition?

Howard J Wooldridge

Published LTE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Pot’s a Distraction

COPs on the Hill

 Stories from the week of July 16, 2010

Get your motor runnin’:   Combining the COP  t-shirt and my motorcycle, Saturday I joined 341 other bikers on a 100 mile, 7 stop charity rally for St. Judes Hospital.   At all the stops a steady stream of people asked about the shirt & good chats followed.   Some had a difficult time believing I had never been stopped by the police.  Karen, my wife, wearing her ‘ask me why’ shirt also had many good chats.

 A deputy who led the rally engaged me on the shirt.  He had never spoken to a cop who agreed.  “Maybe the retired guys feel that way, but no one I know.”   Unknowingly, he answered his own point.  Of course active duty cops can not ‘come out.’   The two who did in the past few years were fired or driven out. (Brad Jardis & Jonathan Wender).

 Glad to help:   Dave from Saginaw, Michigan helped me in 2006 meet several many VIPs and 3 editorial boards.  Recently the local DEA commander has been busting Michigan-legal medical marijuana operations.   Dave and I chatted about what could be done.     Using my contact with an office which had a similar problem, I was able to provide Dave with (one day service) the letter that Congressman  Jared Polis (D-Boulder, CO) wrote to Attorney General Holder on the issue of rogue* agents disregarding Holder’s orders to back off.*  He will include this letter in communicating with his reps in DC.

 Developing relationships and becoming a trusted source of information has been Job One since 2005.

 *rogue = Gauner

*back off = sich zurückhalten

COP stats since August 2009:

 437  presentations to Congressional Staffers (7 more this week)

7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)

36 published Letters to the Editor (that we know of)

Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended.  C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing. (one new hearing this week)

12  radio shows (one more this week)

6 TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision)

Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more 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.  Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.

 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.