One Lone Ranger Rides Again To Legalize Dope

Howard Wooldridge has one of the craziest jobs: trying to convince 535 of the most uptight people in Washington - the entire membership of Congress - to legalize drugs. That means everything from marijuana to cocaine to heroin.

The idea isn't quite as far-fetched as you may think. The more money the United States spends on fighting a drug war that has spiraled out of control in Mexico, the more interest Congress seems to be taking in talk of decriminalization.

"For the first time since I've been here, the "L" word, legalization, has been used in subcommittee hearings as a solution to the violence and Mexican cartels," says Wooldridge, a cowboy and retired police detective who three years ago became the lobbyist for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, known as LEAP.

A handful of lawmakers have endorsed legalization of marijuana, including Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas).

Their group will likely remain small.

As Rohrabacher points out, drug legalization isn't politically palatable to a majority of House members who face reelection every two years. "If it was a vote - a blind vote where nobody knew who was voting - you would have overwhelming support for legalizing marijuana out there, but they will never vote for it because they are afraid of taking on a controversial issue."

LEAP is encouraged by the efforts of Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), whose prison reform bill would explore the possibility of decriminalizing drug use. Webb's bill has a growing roster of bipartisan co-sponsors led by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

Just yesterday on CNN, Webb signaled he'd be open to legalizing pot. ("I think what we need to do is to put all the issues on the table. If you go back to 1980 as a starting point, I think we had 40,000 people in prison on drug charges and today we have about a half a million of them. A great majority of those are non-violent crimes, possession crimes or minor sales.")

Wooldridge trots (on foot) around Capitol Hill in his signature cowboy hat and boots carrying the message that "the war on drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral domestic policy since slavery and Jim Crow." He says the idea of ending "modern prohibition" is just beginning to penetrate as lawmakers grapple with a crumbling economy, a soaring deficit and tens of billions in U.S. tax dollars being spent on a seemingly endless drug war.

Though clearly, it isn't resonating with everyone. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) recently labeled Wooldridge's group of former law enforcement agents "probably a bunch of old potheads."

Watch the video above, which chronicles a day in the life of the cowboy lobbyist, to see how Wooldridge dug in his spurs. (And click here and here to see photos of Wooldridge riding his horse, Misty, on a cross-country mission to legalize drugs.)