- "War on Drugs is NOT working" Great Solutions
go Begging
-
- After the first seven interviews with my brother Police
Officer and Detective Howard Wooldridge of Lansing, Michigan (retired)
concerning the "War on Drugs," hundreds of readers responded.
U.S. taxpayers do not understand the ongoing incredible deception
perpetrated on them by the Drug War. You might even term it a "racket"
perpetrated by those who stand in the power corridors of Washington,
DC.
-
- Sen. Joe Biden Chairman, Judiciary Subcommittee
on Crime and Drugs
-
- Senator Biden remains a leading voice on crime and drug
policy issues. Officer Wooldridge talked with Senator Biden (D-DE)
last month. Senator Biden said at a hearing in February 2008 that
drug prohibition touches 60 percent of all crime in America. Wooldridge
advised to dramatically reduce crime, death, disease and drug use
the U.S. must end the prohibition approach on the 10 most used drugs. The
old paradigm has not been successful, or cost-effective.
-
- "My experience agrees with the senator's statement,"
Officer Wooldridge said. "As a police officer, my goal was to
keep my community safe, once they left their homes. What are the
steps to ending this 94 year failed policy of prohibition?
-
- Marijuana (cannabis) role in the history of a nation
-
- "Many experts agree that the first drug to become
legal and regulated will be marijuana. As DEA law judge Francis Young concluded,
after an exhaustive study of cannabis:
-
- "Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man." Its use has rarely
been a public safety issue, if at all. One cannot overdose on it. Moreover,
its legalization would be a tremendous boost to improve public safety.
Why? Road officers spend million of hours searching cars for a baggie
of pot. They could instead concentrate on the deadly DUI and reckless
drivers. They would be re-directed to find and arrest the child predators
on line looking for a 13 year old girl. Federal agents could completely
focus on Al Qaeda and stop wasting time on medical marijuana gardens in
California."
-
- National marijuana prohibition began in 1937.
-
- Since then, local and state police officers spent tens
of millions of hours searching for and arresting users and sellers. Did
this expenditure improve public safety? No! Has prohibition
caused an increase or decrease in use? Can we name any positive returns
on the investment of money, prison space and police time? These constitute
important questions to ask in the century of 9/11 and a recession.
-
- "Starting my police career in the '70s, I quickly
learned that alcohol use caused the vast majority of calls for service,"
Officer Wooldridge said. "More teens died from alcohol use than
all the illegal drugs combined. DUIs causing injury and death, drunks
shooting each other, assaults, spouse and child abuse cases, etc., constituted
the majority of my police work after sunset. During my 18 years as
a police officer, the use of marijuana never once caused me to be dispatched
to handle a problem. On the other hand, alcohol use generated about
1200 police calls."
-
- Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana regulate and tax
equally
-
- Marijuana remains an intoxicating and potentially psychologically
addictive drug. Millions use it to cop a buzz. Because it can be
destructive, Officer Wooldridge supports it being regulated, controlled
and taxed by the government. Currently, criminals control all aspects
of production, distribution and use not good! We must maintain
the same restrictions and regulations as the two deadliest drugs in America:
alcohol and tobacco.
-
- "In a legal environment, marijuana would lose its
glamour and rebellion elements," Officer Wooldridge said. "According
to doctors certified in addiction psychology, just as many teens try marijuana
because it is illegal as are deterred by its illegality. The Dutch
demonstrated the validity of this expert opinion. Thirty-two years
after they legalized and regulated sales to adults, their age 15-29 citizens
smoke half as much grass as American youth. Even better, Dutch youth
no longer come in contact with pot dealers who also offer heroin for sale.
Thus, far fewer Dutch teens try heroin for the first time; a win-win
situation."
-
- Will underage youth obtain legalized and regulated marijuana?
Yes, the same as they now obtain alcohol and tobacco before they
reach the legal age! No one expects perfection.
-
- Dramatic improvement in public safety after marijuana
is legalized
-
- Public safety will be dramatically improved as law enforcement
again concentrates on crimes involving victims. Detectives will spend
more time arresting child predators on-line, and rapists. Road officers
will promptly answer your 911 calls, instead of spending an hour on a marijuana
possession case. The courts will run smoother without the thousands
of possession and sale cases clogging the docket. Prison space will
not be wasted on someone selling pot to an adult. Many public benefits
are likely.
-
- "Marijuana users would like the government to tax
them!" Officer Wooldridge said. "Dr. Miron of Harvard University
studied the topic. Taxing pot, like whiskey, would generate some $6.4 billion:
not chump change! Better, governments waste $10 billion chasing Willie
Nelson and his friends and putting them in jail. As the U S slides
into a recession or worse, that money will become even more important."
-
- But what about the 'Gateway theory?'
-
- Don't all heroin and meth users start with marijuana?
Actually no, they don't. Federal studies show tobacco as the
first illegal drug teens use. Alcohol comes second with marijuana
third! The Institute of Medicine in 1999 conducted that study. Less
than two percent of marijuana users move on to an abusive relationship
with hard drugs.
-
- "After 37 years of 'Drug War' and the arrest of
38 million Americans, the majority for marijuana possession, the USA must
accept the reality that the state, through its police department, cannot
fix personal stupidity and personal self-destructive behavior," Officer
Wooldridge said. "Only family, friends, spiritual advisors and
expert therapists can help in such a situation."
-
- Today, my brother Howard Wooldridge heads up a task force
in Washington, DC to educate and enlighten congressmen at the highest levels.
He works tirelessly for a better future for all Americans. He
can be reached at: Education Specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,
<http://www.leap.cc/>www.leap.cc, Washington, DC. He speaks
at colleges, political clubs, Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions Clubs across America.
LEAP speakers in 36 states address this issue to citizens around
the country to bring an end to the Drug War. Check out the
web site and join. Book a speaker in your state! Wooldridge also
presents at political conferences in Washington. <mailto:wooldridge@leap.cc>wooldridge@leap.cc
-
- 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.
-
- "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."
-
- © 2008 Frosty Wooldridge
-
- Take action: www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.numbersusa.com
; www.fairus.org ; www.firecoalition.com ; www.alipac.us ; www.capsweb.org
; www.vdare.com ; www.immigrationcounters.com ; www.proenglish.org ; www.patriotunion.org
; www.SafeAmericaAct.com; www.cairco.org ; www.politicaltruthandfact.com ;
www.patriotunion.org ; WWW.immigrationshumancost.org ;www.limitstogrowth.org
; www.balance.org; www.carryingcapacity.org
-
- Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents
from the Arctic to the South Pole as well as six times across
the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from
the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents "The Coming
Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it" to civic
clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring
about sensible world population balance at his website www.frostywooldridge.com
-
- Listen to Frosty Wooldridge on Tuesdays and Thursdays
as he interviews top national leaders on his radio show "Connecting
the Dots" at www.republicbroadcasting.org at 6:00 PM Mountain Time.
Adjust tuning in to your time zone.
-
- "To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone
will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping
he will eat you last but eat you he will."
- ~ Ronald Reagan
-
- http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty344.htm
|
