When the op-ed writers from the Washington Post start copying my best lines, you know there’s a sea change in the discussion of marijuana prohibition. Kathleen Parker in today’s Washington Post opens with:
Drink and drive and it’s grrrrrrrr-eat! Smoke pot and your flakes are frosted, dude. So seems the message from Kellogg’s, which has decided not to renew its sponsorship contract with Michael Phelps after the Olympian was photographed smoking marijuana at a party in South Carolina.
Flattering, if I do say so myself! Kathleen continues by recounting a discussion with Howard Wooldridge of LEAP:
In our peculiar obsession to track down the Willie Nelsons, the Rush Limbaughs and now the Michael Phelpses of society — nonviolent, victimless imbibers of drugs — we’ve actually made society less safe. That’s the conclusion of 10,000 cops, prosecutors, judges and others who make up the membership of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Howard Wooldridge, LEAP’s Washington representative, is a former cop and detective who lectures civic clubs and congressional staffers on the futility of drug laws that reduce public safety by wasting time and money. He points to child pornography as just one example.
As of last April, he says, law enforcement had identified 623,000 computers containing child pornography, including downloadable video of child rape. Only a fraction of those have been pursued with search warrants, thanks to limited resources and staff shortages. What’s worse, Wooldridge says, is that three times out of five a search warrant also produces a child victim on the premises.
Another example: Last year, Human Rights Watch reported that as many as 400,000 rape kits containing evidence were sitting unopened in criminal labs and storage facilities. Between the Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County sheriff’s office, nearly 12,000 kits were unopened, according to an NPR report in December.
The tide is turning, Stashers, and Wooldridge’s points are another arrow in the quiver — potheads or child porn? reefer warrants or rape kits? grow houses or meth labs? — and with state and local law enforcement suffering massive cutbacks, these arguments will gain traction even with the most die-hard cannabiphobes.
