Some Random Drug War Notes

Well not so random actually. They are the working notes of anti-Drug War Lobbiest and retired Detective/Officer Howard Wooldridge.

De Nile is also a river in Egypt:

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting this week our Deputy Secretary of State for the Americas, Mr. Valenzuela was asked by the chairman about the murders of 16 school kids at a birthday party in Mexico. His response was ‘the murders were a sign of success’ of the policy of Mexican President Calderone. I did not believe my ears. After the hearing I asked 2 others if I had heard correctly. Yes. I reviewed the tape at home. Yup. Like body counts in Vietnam and Iraq, dead students are a sign of success. Who knew?

Unsurprisingly a modest search of the Internet turned up nothing about those remarks.

Hell froze over:

On Tuesday I attended a press conference in the Capitol. The IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) endorsed the Webb Commission bill. 17 of my colleagues in full dress uniforms stood behind four Senators asking the Congress for a speedy passage* of the bill. The IACP represents 20,000 Top Cops. It is the only major group to endorse the Webb bill. The rest are fighting it for all their worth.

I never thought the IACP would support this bill. I was wrong. On this occasion it is good to be wrong.

More about IACP support.

And why are the rest of the top police opposing it? Follow the money.

Last month in the hallway of the Heritage Foundation, I ran into Ron Brooks, chief lobbyist for the nation's 69,000 narcotics officers (one cop in 12 is a narcotics officer). He smugly stated that my organization only had a few thousand members vs his 59,000 strong organization. I countered that a solid poll had just shown that 22 percent of all active duty cops would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. This percentage meant about 225,00 cops feel like I do. Per the same poll, a majority of cops felt that marijuana should be just a ticket, not an arrest. I told him that he and the narcs favored prohibition because it was a big, overtime check and job security. He became upset and stormed off.

That is not the only corruption going on in the Drug War. Ever wonder how all those drugs get across the border?

Worse than we thought:

Senator Pryor (D-AR) had the courage ( no other Senators attended the event) to call a hearing on the ‘Corruption of federal officers by the Mexican Drug Cartels.’ One witness stated that the polygraph exam was washing out 60% of the applicants. The audience was stunned at such a figure.

Then came the bad news. The Border Patrol only polygraphs 15% of applicants. The witnesses testified further that the Drug Cartels are hiring people who then apply to the Border Patrol. Why receive only one paycheck? And you wonder how drugs flow across the border like beer in a German bar?

Well not to worry. We are winning the Drug War. In fact we have been winning it for 40 years. Or would that be 96 years - since the passage of the Federal anti-cocaine and heroin laws - or for 73 years since the passage of the Federal anti-marijuana laws?

YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS

“So what numbers can you ‘hang your hat on?” asked Wooldridge. “In 2005 our federal government reported these sobering numbers: One – 110 million Americans had tried an illicit drug at least once. Two – 35,000,000 had used an illicit drug the previous year. More importantly, ask yourself what is the most crucial question for you and your children. Is it how much has drug use has gone up or down or how easy is it for your kids to buy drugs from marijuana to heroin. Of course it is drug availability which is the crucial question and that is why the Prohibition Crowd never, ever wants to discuss that aspect.

“Drug Prohibition will be repealed when a majority understand its destructive effects AND tell their politicians. Help your family by re-directing police time towards public safety, not personal safety. Going after Willie Nelson smoking marijuana on his back porch is NOT making America safer. Silence here means politicians will keep voting billions to feed the police drug machine.”

Which just goes to show you how long failure can be maintained if you are spending other people's money to support it.

Cross Posted at Classical Values