DRCNet on Drug Reform Lobbying...Please read and make a difference!

[ReformMaryJaneLaws]

Hey guys! I got this email today from the Drug Reform Coordination Network. They have some great ideas as to how we can attempt to make a difference.

I hope everyone takes the time to read it and act on it!












Dear friend of drug policy reform:

August has begun, and with it the US Congress has gone into
recess and its Senators and Representatives have returned
to their districts and states. This is the ideal time to
pay a visit to their local offices and make the case for
and against current legislation of importance in drug
policy. Get some friends or family members to go with you
in a group! Below we list some issues and bills to bring
up when you do, with instructions for figuring out where to
go and suggestions for when you do. Please write us at
alert-feedback@drcnet.org (mailto:alert-feedback@drcnet.org)
to let us know what actions you've taken and what responses
you've gotten from your legislators or their staffs.

First, though, DRCNet has just made up StopTheDrugWar.org
pins, with our usual stop sign logo, that you can wear for
the occasion. Visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ and
contribute $10 or more and we'll send one to you by first-
class mail for free. (If you can't afford the $10, we'll
send you one anyway, for less or even for free if
necessary.) If you want to send your donation by check,
please e-mail us at membership@drcnet.org
(mailto:membership@drcnet.org) and let us know, and include
your mailing address so we can send your pin now. Also let
us know if you would like more than one, and add an
additional $1.00 for each (or whatever you can afford).
Our mailing address for checks is: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402,
Washington, DC 20036. Remember that donations to the Drug
Reform Coordination Network are not tax-deductible, though
you can make a tax-deductible donation if you prefer to the
DRCNet Foundation, same address.

Visit http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov for
links to your legislators' web sites (which generally
include local and DC contact information), and for online
tools for determining who they are if you don't already
know, or call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-
3121 and ask them. It's best to look presentable when you
have your visit, so your legislators know that not only do
you take this issue and the political process seriously,
but other people who will vote in their races in the future
take you and your opinions seriously.

ISSUES:

This is not a complete list of every relevant issue
affecting drug policy, but only the ones that are the most
"in play" at the moment.

1) HEA: DRCNet, with Students for Sensible Drug Policy,
has a major national campaign to repeal a provision of the
Higher Education Act that delays or denies federal
financial aid to students because of drug convictions.
There is a likelihood that legislation will pass this year
that will exempt would-be students who were not in school
at the time of their offenses. While this is a positive
development, it is important for Representatives and
Senators to hear that constituents feel it is not enough
and that only full repeal of the law will adequately
resolve the issue. Bring a copy of our 2002 sign-on letter
at http://www.raiseyourvoice.com/Letter/ that strongly
makes this case, and include the impressive list of
organizational endorsers.

H.R. 685, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, has 62 cosponsors
and would repeal the drug provision in full. Please urge
your US Rep. to sponsor this bill if he or she is not
already. (See http://www.raiseyourvoice.com/685.html for
the latest cosponsor listing.) Visit
http://www.raiseyourvoice.com for extensive information on
this issue, to send an e-mail or fax to your Representative
and Senators and the President, to make sure you are
receiving district-specific HEA alerts as well as the
general ones, and to get more involved in this campaign.
Visit http://www.ssdp.org for information on student drug
reform activism.

2) MEDICAL MARIJUANA: There are currently two pro-medical
marijuana bills in Congress, H.R. 2233, the States' Rights
to Medical Marijuana Act, and H.R. 1717, the Truth in
Trials Act. States' Rights would eliminate federal
prohibition of medical marijuana in states that have passed
medical marijuana laws. Truth in Trials would create a
medical necessity defense for medical marijuana use in
those states. We ask you to urge your US Rep. to cosponsor
and support both of these bills. Visit
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquer...8:HR02233:@@@P and
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquer...8:HR01717:@@@P
to read the latest cosponsor listings.

Also, there was a medical marijuana vote in the full House
last month, and you should determine how your Rep. voted
before you have your meeting. Visit
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/july23-yesno.pdf (PDF) or
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/july23-yesno.xls (Excel) or
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/july23-yesno.txt (tab-delimited
plain text) to find out. Visit
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/ to send
e-mails and faxes to Congress and the President in support
of these bills.

Visit http://www.mpp.org or http://www.norml.org for
further resources for working on this issue.

3) PLAN COLOMBIA AND THE ANDEAN DRUG WAR: Also last month,
the House voted down an amendment to reduce drug war
funding to the Colombia military. Now, the full Andean
Counterdrug Initiative legislation has moved to the Senate.
According to the Latin American Working Group, the Senate
has no plans to even debate Colombia funding. DRCNet
opposes the Andean drug war in its entirety, and we also
support a call by the Latin American Working Group for
Colombia aid in particular to be debated on the Senate
floor. Please ask your Senators to vote against continued
funding of the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, particularly
Colombia drug war funding, and to support any amendments
that would eliminate or scale it back, and to demand a real
debate on the Colombian drug war on the Senate floor.

The Andean drug war is not only harmful, it is futile and
ridiculous. We have a graph that is useful for making that
point (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/coca-growing.gif). The
graph demonstrates how source country anti-cocaine efforts
have only caused coca cultivation to shift from place to
place, not to reduce it -- the amount of the shifts is far
greater than the change in total coca growing, indicating
the supply filling demand is the dominant force, not
eradication programs.

Also consider bringing a copy of "Bad Neighbor Policy:
Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America," a new,
concise but thorough overview of the issue by the Cato
Institute's Ted Galen Carpenter -- visit
http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ and donate $35 or more and
we'll send you a free copy -- let us know if you're
bringing it to a legislator visit and we'll send it first-
class -- or donate $60 or more for two copies -- or $85 or
more for three.

Visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/stopthehelicopters/ to
send e-mails and faxes to your Senators in opposition to
the Andean Counterdrug Initiative and for links to further
resources for working on this issue.

4) RAVE ACT: Last year, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) obtained
passage of the controversial Reducing Americans'
Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act by sneaking it into the
popular Amber Alert bill. The RAVE Act threatens to
suppress freedom of speech and assembly by making club
owners subject to draconian criminal penalties if patrons
engage in illicit drug activity. Though Biden promised the
law would not be used to stifle legitimate events, it has
already happened. Please tell your Senators and your
Representative that the RAVE Act is dangerous and
undemocratic and should be repealed -- and that in the
meantime they should exercise great scrutiny of law
enforcers to prevent its further abuse. Bring a copy of
our Week Online article on the shutdown by DEA threat of a
NORML-SSDP fundraiser in Billings, Montana to make the
point (http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chroni.../dearave.shtml).

Visit http://www.drugpolicy.org for further resources for
working on this issue.

5) SENTENCING AND INCARCERATION: Thanks in part to
draconian mandatory minimum sentencing and insufficiently
flexible federal sentencing guidelines, our nation's
prisons and jails hold more than half a million nonviolent
drug offenders -- more than the number of people imprisoned
for any criminal offense in the entire European Union, even
though the EU has more people than the United States.
Overall, the US has more than two million people
incarcerated, the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Earlier this year, Congress passed legislation known as the
Feeney Amendment (now Sec. 401 of the PROTECT Act) that
will strip even more discretion from judges by requiring
the US Sentencing Commission to enact changes to the
federal sentencing guidelines reducing the frequency of
"downward departures," affecting sentencing across the
board including for drug offenses. A measure introduced by
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Sen. Edward Kenney (D-MA), the
JUDGES Act (S. 1086 and H.R. 2213), would repeal Sec. 401
and other unjust provisions of the PROTECT Act.

Please ask your Senators and your Representative to support
the JUDGES Act and to go further and repeal mandatory
minimum drug sentences in full. Visit
http://www.famm.org/pdfs/FGsummer03final.pdf for further
information on this legislation and visit
http://www.famm.org for additional resources on this issue.

That is our recommended federal lineup. We have not
discussed DRCNet's overall philosophy on drug policy, which
is that prohibition should be ended and drugs and the drug
trade be brought within the control of law -- meaning some
form of legalization, to use the more popular word for the
concept. This doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about this
when you have a meeting. That is a judgment call you have
to make based on what you know about the legislator and on
the flow of things when you are there. If you only have a
short time, which is probable, you might only want to bring
up the current legislative issues.

If it seems like your Senator or Rep. (or more likely one
of their staffers) is interested in having a dialogue on
the larger issue, it may be worthwhile to bring it up. You
can point to conservatives who have either called for
legalization, such as National Review magazine
(http://www.nationalreview.com/12feb96/drug.html), or who
haven't taken that position but have raised the issue, like
Indiana Rep. Dan Burton
(http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chroni...anburton.shtml).
You can talk about how prohibition causes violence by
creating the underground drug trade instead of a licit
trade governed as other legal businesses are; how that
underground trade reaches literally into the schools
themselves, whereas this doesn't really happen with the
legal drug alcohol; how fighting drugs through force is
futile because supply fills demand and illegal drugs are so
lucrative to sell; many other reasons you can find in the
pages of our web site.

If you do have such a conversation, it's a good idea at the
end to point out that whether or not they agree with you,
it's important to at least make positive progress on the
smaller issues (such as the ones outlined above) on which
you both agree.

You have a few weeks to make these appointments, so start
thinking about it and hopefully acting on it now! If you
can't do it in time but still want to do this kind of
activism in support of the cause, you can still have
meetings with your legislators' staffers.

Please forward this bulletin to other likely reform
supporters, and please keep following DRCNet action alerts,
sending the e-mails and faxes, making the phone calls and
paying the visits. Though last month's two big votes were
lost, they were closer than has ever happened before -- see
our reports at http://www.drcnet.org/wol/297.shtml if you
haven't already -- proof that you can make a difference and
that the drug war can end, but only with your help.

Again, please write to alert-feedback@drcnet.org
(mailto:alert-feedback@drcnet.org) to let us know what
actions you've taken this month and what you've learned
about your legislators intentions and views. Thank you for
standing with us against the drug war.

-----------------------------------------------------------

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[Digit]

*sigh*
i wish we had a UK version of you.