COPs on the Hill: Stories from the weeks of February 4, 11 and 18, 2011**

Your voice in the United States Congress 

Don’t need no stinkin booth:  NOTE:  I spent three long days (10,11,12) at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) = 11,000 rabid conservatives come together once per year).  All the stories are from the conference.

 I made an appointment with Justin to discuss strategy at 3PM at the atrium  = center of the hotel.   An hour later he gave up, saying we would have to meet later in a more private area.  Almost without pause, someone would  approach me, ask why cops want to legalize pot and often wanted a foto.   Even my Maryland House Delegate waited patiently five minutes to introduce himself (he had met Karen via her t-shirt late last year).   Even I was impressed with the traffic/number of contacts.   As Justin said, ‘Why spend $5,000  for a booth, when you can just stand in the middle of the room?’ 

 Note:  I hope to duplicate that ‘don’t need no stinking booth’ concept at the NRA (National Rifle Association) conference in April and the LULAC (League of United Latino American Conference) gathering in June.

 This week at Grover’s Brunch a VIP in the conservative movement  Colin Hanna  www.letfreedomringusa.com came up to me and said I was “omnipresent” at CPAC.   Everytime he looked across the room, he could see my Stetson hat. 

 Don’t go home!:   Sharing a table with another couple,  the Senate staffer stated he knew me from the years I had spent in the Senate.   Though crime was not his issue and we had never met, nonetheless, he knew exactly who I was and my mission.  Perhaps the several beers he had drunk loosened his lips.   Either way, he became quite loud as he proclaimed I was winning and exhorted* me not to give up.  And then repeated himself several times, as drinkers often do.   Still, I believe he was speaking from the heart.   I assured him I was staying until drug prohibition was over. 

 Special Thanks:    Thank you to COPs member Ethel Rowland of Fort Pierce, Florida who attended CPAC in her LEAP ‘cape.’ (she took two shirts and nicely made them into a cape so the ASK ME WHY COPS SAY LEGALIZE DRUGS was visible front and back)   Many persons asked us if we were married. J  Ethel shared her dinner tickets with me, allowing me to be with the most important 400 people at two dinners.   Next year I will spend the big bucks to repeat that.   I believe the ‘see and be seen’ effect warrants the expense.  

 CPAC in review:    I had just over 100 conversations with a listening audience  of about 350.  Numerous (about 12) interviews by radio, TV and bloggers kept me busy.  Thursday and Friday were simply crazy busy.  CPAC continues to grow more Libertarian & Ron Paul won the straw poll vote for President the second year in a row.   Gary Johnson (R-NM and former two term governor) gave an excellent speech.   I met a recently retired DEA agent who wants to do all he can to put prohibition in the history books.  And many, many others. 

 *exhort = ermahnen oder ermutigen

 Below are the major media events that I made:

 Washington Post – paper edition on 2-11 on page four : { A tall, middle-aged man in a cowboy hat wore a T-shirt with the words “Ask Me Why Cops Say Legalize Pot” on his back. }
From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-yn/content/article/2011/02/10/AR2011021007407.html

1.  Reason TV: in this video, FYI — http://reason.com/blog/2011/02/10/reasontv-gay-wars-what-we-saw

 at the 1:55 point for 3 seconds…simply allowed the viewer to read the shirt

  Technorati – first page of the blog:

CPAC attracts all sorts of unique folks. There was Howard Wooldridge, wearing a shirt that said “Cops say legalize pot. Ask me why.” He was dressed in Friday-night cowboy – sturdy, well-worn boots; a heavily tooled belt; and a wide-brimmed, cream-colored, Stetson 4X. His cell phone whinnied like a cow pony. Except for unwrinkled skin, he looked every bit the ranch hand. Nice guy too; I liked him. It turns out he was a retired cop from a Midwestern city.

http://technorati.com/politics/article/cpac-2011-was-a-carnival-of/

** As you know, this newsletter also doubles as my personal diary.  The reason I have combined 3 weeks into one newsletter is due to a death in my family.   On January 31 while making the rounds in the House, I learned my 50 year old brother had died after shoveling snow in Michigan.  I spent the next 10 days taking care of my mom, getting her to the funeral in Michigan and back home to Georgia.   I arrived back in DC to spend three, long days at CPAC.   All this week as been spent catching up on mountains of emails and other such stuff.  Thank you for your understanding.   I will be back in ‘action’ next week beginning with testifying before the House of Delegates in Annapolis.

COPs 2nd year stats to date:

TV appearances: 11 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable) 

Newspaper stories: 7 dailes, 3 weeklies (one this week)

Radio appearances: 7 (one this week)

Published LTE: 7 ( none this week)

Other media (bloggers, cable TV, minor publications, etc): 9

67 presentations to Congressional staffers: (1  this week)

5 (Member of Congress) contacts :    

2 other VIP (MD state Senator & Rep):  (1 this week)

Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year.    Your support keeps the COPs voice loud and strong in the halls of the United States Congress.   We 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 send a check to:

COP

POB 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717

Howard

Detective/Officer Howard  Wooldridge (retired)

Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org

Washington, DC

817-975-1110 Cell

howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org

Domino el español

Ich verstehe mich gut auf Deutsch

Je parle français assez bien pour un petit, timide, moyen cowboy

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.

Arizona Republic – Published LTE: Drug prohibition kills the innocent – February 22, 2011

 Regarding the article on Thursday, “Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne: Mexican cartels an ‘escalating threat’ to U.S.”: Speaking as a retired detective who fought in the trenches of the drug war, I know that this modern drug prohibition has been a spectacular, trillion-dollar failed public policy. We certainly know from our experience in 1933 that, to destroy the Mexican cartels, we simply need to repeal drug prohibition. Horne’s call for a “massive new education campaign to teach drug users about the cartels” is a solution? You have to be kidding me. That was tried after 9/11 and was a colossal failure. Drug users know full well that it is prohibition that causes money to flow to Osama bin Laden.

 I challenge Horne to put pen to paper and tell us all the advantages and positive outcomes of drug prohibition. Something that says the disaster and suffering of Mexico is worthwhile. – Howard Wooldridge, Tucson

Stories from the week of January 28, 2011

COPs on the Hill 

Your voice in the United States Congress

VIP at the other table:  Saturday mornings I spend at the local coffee shop where about seven of us gather to speak French for an hour and then four us stay a bit longer to chat in German.   This week one of our group noted that the newly elected state senator was at the next table.    Turns out his table’s theme was for anyone in the town to chat & had been meeting every Saturday since the 1950s.  I ended up with a full 30 minute chat with the state senator who agreed with  COPs on marijuana policy and harm reduction in general. 

I need to change my underwear!   I spent Tuesday in the House Office Buildings picking up the info on the 96 new Members (got half done).    The police had already shut down much of the Capitol grounds in preparation for the President’s State of the Union speech.   I had to go out the last door in Cannon.  I could see lots of police cars and the streets blocked off.   I had almost passed thru the first of the two doors, when one of the officers ordered in that no-mistake-police-voice “Hold it!!”   I froze like bird dog hitting the scent of a pheasant.    I was hoping the next sensation would be a bolt of electricity from a taser and not a bullet.

“Just wanted to read your jacket….  I agree.”   SOB and the price I pay for my billboard jacket.

Tell me about your shirt:   While gathering the info on new offices, I wore my COPs t-shirt for comfort and I always get asked 15-20 times each day.   Riding up the elevator, the newly elected R Congressman asked about the shirt.  We ended up walking to his office door.   During that 90 seconds he agreed that 10^th amendment should apply to marijuana policy.  Wa-hooo!. 

It’s winter:  It was bound to happen.*  While gathering info on new offices, I walked into a Texas office.  The receptionist asked where my felt hat was.  Busted.*  My beaver winter hat is too hot and being brown, does not look right with my white t-shirt…so I wore my white, straw summer hat.   After my explanation we ended up having an excellent chat.   LOL

 *bound to happen = das muß so kommen

*busted = erwischen

 COPs 2nd year stats to date:

 TV appearances: 12 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable) 

Newspaper stories: 6 dailes, 3 weeklies

Radio appearances: 6

Published LTE: 7 ( one this week)

 66 presentations to Congressional staffers: (8  this week)

5 (Member of Congress) contacts : (  2 this week)  

1 other VIP (MD state Senator):  (1 this week)

 Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year.    Your support keeps the COPs voice loud and strong in the halls of the United States Congress.   We 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 send a check to:

 COP

POB 772

Buckeystown, MD  21717

 Howard

Detective/Officer Howard  Wooldridge (retired)

Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org

Washington, DC

817-975-1110 Cell

howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org

Domino el español

Ich verstehe mich gut auf Deutsch

Je parle français assez bien pour un petit, timide, moyen cowboy

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.

Published LTE: 29 January 2011 : Columbia Daily Tribune, MO – FAILED DRUG POLICY SHOULD BE REVERSED

Pubdate: Sat, 29 Jan 2011
 

Editor, the Tribune: As a retired police detective who worked in the trenches of the drug war for 18 years, I heartily agree with Hank Waters that we need to repeal this modern prohibition.  Drug prohibition has increased crime, death, disease and quite probably drug use.  I could not see one positive outcome from my position in the trenches.  The slaughter of innocents at birthday parties in Mexico merits a shrug from us.  We don’t care enough to change policy.

I, for one, have faith that few Americans of any age are going to start using heroin or meth or crack if you made them legal and regulated.  We are not as stupid as police chiefs, sheriffs and politicians say we are.  And if I am wrong, we can always go back to the drug war.  As our “thin blue line” gets thinner in Missouri, do you really want us to chase the likes of Willie Nelson and Rush Limbaugh?

Howard Wooldridge
Washington, DC

Cowboy Cop Wants Drug War Ended