the Editor of The Paw Paw Courier Leader: I'm writing about the outstanding story about Howard Wooldridge and Greg Fransico: "Ex-Cop Riding Across Nation To Stamp Out Drug Laws" (8-15-05). I'd like to add that if tough-on-drugs policies worked, the quixotic goal of a drug free America would have been reached a long time ago. And if tolerant drug policies created more drug use, the Netherlands would have much higher drug usage rates than the United States. They do not.

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PAW PAW - "Cops say legalize drugs. Ask me why," reads the message on a T-shirt being worn by an unlikely advocate for drug law reform, former Bath and DeWitt Township, MI, police officer, Howard Wooldridge.

Wooldridge, a member of the organization, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, is riding his horse, Misty, across the country this summer spreading the group's message that drug abuse is bad, but prohibition makes the problem worse.

Wooldridge passed through Van Buren County this week, riding Misty along Red Arrow Highway. He began his ride March 4 in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and plans to finish in New York City around Oct 1. Along the way, Wooldridge is voicing his opinion that the current law enforcement "war on drugs" is a catastrophe, and that legalizing drug use could be the answer to illegal trafficking. "Drug prohibition is costing this nation in excess of $70 billion annually. That is money that could be spent on schools, roads, protecting the public from violent criminals," says Wooldridge. He feels that prohibition actually takes control out of the hands of government and gives it to the criminals.

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