- Retired police officer Howard Wooldridge rode his horse,
"Misty," from Savannah, Georgia to New Port Beach, Oregon
to become the first man in the 21st century to ride coast to coast across
America. He repeated the journey in 2005 to become the only man in
history to ride both ways.
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- Why did he gallop across America?
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- As a police officer, he is doing his best to stop the
futile "War on Drugs" -- dragging on for the past 35 years.
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- War on Drugs ! How is that working for us
in America ?
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- Is it reducing crime? Is it reducing rates of death
and disease? Is it effective in keeping drugs and drug dealers away from
our children?
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- Since 1971, law enforcement has spent one trillion dollars
in order to arrest 37 million people and fill hundreds of warehouses with
dope. What progress do you see?
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- Drugs prove cheaper, stronger much easier to find
and buy.
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- My brother, Officer Howard Wooldridge, fought on the
side of the 'good guys' for 18 years in the War on Drugs, giving him a
lot of actual experience in the trenches.
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- After much time, consternation and out-and-out frustration
in not achieving a single, stated goal in the long term, he came to the
conclusion that we must be doing something wrong.
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- Measures-of-Effectiveness; the "war-on-drugs"
is an abject failure
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- No matter how many dealers police took off the streets,
new ones popped up to take their places. The prices for drugs kept
falling, indicating an oversupply. The purity kept increasing; heroin
increased from 3.6 percent to near 50 percent purity between 1980 and 2007.
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- The prison population kept increasing until over 70 percent
of all inmates stem from drug-related charges.
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- "Why has my profession been unable to make a dent?"
Wooldridge asked. "It has not been for a lack of trying."
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- Good cops have given their lives; for what ?
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- Thousands of police officers have been shot and maimed,
and hundreds killed.
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- First, understand that drug dealers accept -- as a condition
of employment -- death and long prison terms. We know there is an
inexhaustible supply of people who will risk death to make the huge profits
that prohibition generates.
- A second major reason is that when someone buys an illegal
drug from a dealer, nobody calls 911 to report the 'crime.' It is
very difficult for us to catch suspects when the phone does not ring. Neither
the buyer nor the seller sees themselves as a 'victim.' "
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- The "War on Drugs" is NOT working; there must
be a better approach
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- Meanwhile, al Qaeda earns three billion U.S. dollars
this year from drug sales. We turned third world thugs into billionaires
that can and do buy governments.
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- Our prisons burst with non-violent offenders -- while
murderers, rapists and child molesters, not subject to mandatory minimums,
enjoy early releases due to over-crowding.
- The cost-to-culture is devastating in dollars and
lives.
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- The only thing to show for this terrible policy is that
today after 36 years and a trillion tax dollars spent the situation
is worse.
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- "Drug gangs have spread like the plague out of the
large cities and into medium and even small cities," Officer Wooldridge
said. "Young teens join gangs to make 'easy,' big money selling
drugs. Fifteen year olds are shot and killed every week because drug
prohibition gives them this job option. A policy which many say is
to protect kids actually causes hundreds of deaths a year and tens of thousands
of destroyed young lives."
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- This 'war' is a well-meaning public policy that MUST
change
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- Wooldridge continued, "During alcohol prohibition
in the early years of the 20th century, rates of murder and police corruption
in the United States rose to the highest levels in its history. The
year we ended that prohibition those statistics fell to a low ebb
where they remained until we declared the 'war on drugs' 37 years later."
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- "Thanks to that 'war,' we have surpassed both those
figures with the New Prohibition ."
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- The unintended consequences of this terrible 'war' destroy
the lives of generations of America's youth.
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- How many people do you know who have used an illegal
drug, then put the drugs behind them and gone on to lead productive lives?
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- U.S. presidents, many members of our legislative bodies,
tens of thousands of police officers make the list. With imprisonment,
those possibilities vanish.
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- You can overcome an addiction, but you will never get
over a conviction.
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- We are making things worse; conventional wisdom is WRONG
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- "Until we end Prohibition Two, we are making things
worse. We should be offering treatment-on-demand and effective education,"
Wooldridge said.
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- "The education has to be based in fact, a winning
strategy and not emotional scare tactics. The treatment needs
to be requested voluntary; forced treatment is not much different
than some government's attempts at brainwashing."
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- "The lesson of alcohol is useful here. If substances
(so-called "recreational drugs") were regulated and taxed, adequate
monies could be raised for treatment programs and the glamour appeal of
the 'forbidden fruit' would be reduced."
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- "We would also put the dreaded criminals who deal
and push the drugs out of business."
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- LEAP; The Attitude-Change Cowboy
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- Today, my brother Howard wears a natty cowboy hat (his
trademark) as he advocates for a task force in Washington, DC to
educate and enlighten congressmen (and staffers) at the highest levels.
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- He works tirelessly for a better future for all Americans.
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- Howard Wooldridge can be reached at: Education Specialist,
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), <http://www.leap.cc/>www.leap.cc
, Washington, DC. He speaks passionately at colleges, Rotary, Kiwanis,
Lions Clubs and other fine service organizations across America. He
delivers powerful presentations at political conferences in Washington.
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- The mission of LEAP 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 replaced by a proven approach with much better
results.
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- In 2007, almost all of these drugs come from "offshore"
sources.
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- The payoffs are gigantic
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- "Envision a world where crime is cut in half, terrorists
don't make money selling drugs -- and kids are not employed in the drug
trade," Wooldridge said.
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- "Envision a world where the police focus their limited
resources on violent criminals, DUI, child predators and terrorists."
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- "Imagine a world where if you have a drug
problem, you see a doctor not a judge."
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- "All are possible, when we find the courage to end
Prohibition Two."
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- © 2007 Frosty Wooldridge - All Rights Reserved
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