Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 14:43:50 EDT From: LVNORML420@aol.com Subject: Drug War Bill Threatening Freedom of Speech To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) Rapid Response Team
ALERT: Drug War Bill Threatening Freedom of Speech
VISIT: http://www.drcnet.org/freespeech/ 5/8/00An insidious attack on the 1st Amendment is taking place, and your help is needed to stop a bill that the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to "mark-up" on Tuesday, May 8th or Wednesday, May 9th. Your help is needed to oppose the bill in Judiciary until then and in the larger House if it gets through. Please visit http://www.drcnet.org/freespeech/ and tell Congress that H.R. 2987, the so-called "Methamphetmine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999" won't stop meth but will injure the Constitution.
If H.R. 2987 passes, anyone whose web site even links to certain kinds of drug information could face up to ten years in federal prison. Groups like DRCNet that are devoted strictly to policy reform could be placed at risk through association. Web sites helping patients make decisions about marijuana as a medicine could elicit the heavy hand of the criminal justice system, as could sites helping to reduce the harm of drug addiction through safer-injecting techniques and other harm reduction measures.
Other provisions of the bill are no better, requiring the US Sentencing Commission to increase mandated federal penalties for methamphetamine offenses and moving drug policy as a whole further down the drug war's destructive path. Please tell Congress you oppose H.R. 2987 in its entirety, but that you're particularly opposed to the sections titled "Advertisements for Drug Paraphernalia and Schedule I Controlled Substances" and "Criminal Prohibition on Distribution of Certain Information Relating to the Manufacture of Controlled Substances."
Please visit http://www.drcnet.org/freespeech/ to send a free e-mail or fax to Congress. While you're doing that, please write down your Representative's phone number, which our system will provide, and call it to make even greater impact, or just call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be transferred.
Please make your voice heard today, while you can!