ALL DRUGS SHOULD BE LEGALIZED, RETIRED DETECTIVE SAYS

If Howard Wooldridge had it his way, all illicit drugs in America
would be as legal as tobacco and alcohol.

The retired Michigan police detective is traveling across West
Virginia this week speaking on behalf of the organization Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The nation's drug policy is badly in need of reform, Wooldridge said
in an interview with the Gazette, and the best reform is to legalize
all drugs so their sales are regulated and managed by the government,
not criminals, he said. - advertisement -

"We have tried to make America a land that is drug free, or close to
it," he said, but those efforts have been a "catastrophic failure."

Wooldridge says the decades-old war on drugs waged by the government
is too expensive and has only made the drug situation in this country worse.

"What's been the return on the investment for $1 trillion?" he asked.
"[Illegal] drugs are cheaper, stronger and readily available. ... All
we have done is filled up prison after prison."

Wooldridge, who moved to Texas when he retired, works in Washington,
D.C., trying to convince lawmakers that change is needed.

He is quick to point out, however, that drugs are dangerous and
deadly. The funding that goes to fighting the illegal drug industry
instead needs to go to education and addiction treatment, he said.

"Be as drug free as you can be, from coffee to heroin," he said,
stressing the importance of personal responsibility. "If one day you
or a loved one has a drug problem, see a doctor, not a judge."

LEAP and Wooldridge call the illegality of drugs the "new
Prohibition," and compare the crime issues prevalent in the drug
trade to the problems that arose when the government banned alcohol
in the '20s and '30s. Alcohol prohibition was repealed in 1933 after
the black market increased crime and did little to lessen people's
drinking habits.

Doing something about the illegal drug trade is more important than
ever in the post-9/11 world, Wooldridge said, because it funds
terrorism in countries such as Afghanistan. Terrorists' funding would
dry up if drugs were suddenly legal to sell and buy. "It is only
[drug's] illegality that makes them worth their weight in gold," he said.

After nearly 20 years of working in law enforcement, Wooldridge said
he eventually became frustrated with all the time he and fellow
officers had to dedicate to chasing basic drug-related crime, when
they could have been going after drunken drivers or child predators.

"We could get these guys more often if we stop chasing Rush Limbaugh and Willie Nelson."