Congress Wants to Tape Your Mouth Shut, Steal Your Wallet

ACTION ALERT: PROTECT FREE SPEECH AND YOUR WALLET

Congress Wants to Tape Your Mouth Shut, Steal Your Wallet

*** Congress to ban private advertising in support of mar1juana law reform

*** At same time, to spend $145 million in tax money on government anti-mar1juana ads

It's finally happened. Not content with arresting 700,000 Americans a year for mar1juana offenses, Congress now wants to make it illegal even to talk about mar1juana. Drug war extremists are trying to ban private advertising on buses, subways, or trains that calls for the reform of mar1juana laws.
Worse still, the same bill also spends $145 million in taxpayer money on anti-mar1juana government propaganda.

That's right. Congress wants to run anti-mar1juana ads with your tax money, while at the same time banning you from using your own money to run ads in support of mar1juana law reform. They want to prohibit you from spending money on things you believe in, while taking money out of your paycheck to spend on things you don't believe in.

Without being able to advertise on buses, trains, and subways, it will be very difficult for drug policy reformers to get our message directly to the American people - which is exactly what the drug war extremists fear. They want to shut us up! And they will get away with it if you don't act right now!

ACTIONS TO TAKE

1) Fax your Members of Congress and tell them to protect free speech. You can fax them for free at
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=5652&l=11027

2) Forward this alert to your friends, family, and co-workers. We need thousands of Americans to fax Congress.

MORE INFORMATION

Every year Congress passes 13 federal spending bills providing money to various federal agencies. Sometimes the House passes a spending bill that is different from a bill the Senate passes. When that is the case, Congress appoints what's called a "conference committee" to reconcile differences between the two bills. This conference committee then sends a final version of the bill to both the House and Senate for one final up and down vote, with no chance for an amendment. Frequently members of the conference committee add controversial things to the spending bill at the last minute, knowing that their colleagues won't vote against an entire spending bill just because one thing in it is controversial.

This year Congressional leadership decided to reconcile multiple spending bills within one conference committee, producing a single federal spending bill (known as an "omnibus" spending bill) to send to the House and Senate floor for a final vote. This tactic allowed them to slip in all sorts of controversial things they could not otherwise pass into law, knowing that Members of Congress are unlikely to vote against such an omnibus funding bill just because they don't like some parts of it.

During conference House and Senate leaders loaded up the omnibus bill (HR 2673) with dozens of controversial provisions. One such provision, added by Rep. Ernest Istook Jr. (R-OK) would prohibit any transit system that receives federal funds from running advertising from a group that wants to decriminalize or legalize mar1juana. If enacted, it would prevent groups like Change the Climate and the Drug Policy Alliance from buying ad space on buses, trains, and subways around the country. It would prevent drug policy reformers from getting our reform message directly to the American people.

At the same time, the omnibus bill gives the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) $145 million to run anti-mar1juana ads next year. (This provision was already a part of one of the federal spending bills that Congress considered earlier this year and was not added by the conference committee. The amount of taxpayer money spent on government anti-mar1juana ads would have been significantly higher had the Drug Policy Alliance and other groups not worked to cut the budget.) ONDCP has already spent taxpayer money this year on television commercials comparing drug users to terrorists and claiming that smoking mar1juana will get you raped and pregnant, make you shoot your neighbor, and make you run over little kids with your car. Next year's ads are expected to tell the American people that mar1juana is more dangerous than heroin.

The House is expected to vote on the omnibus spending bill next week. The Senate may vote on it next week, but more likely will postpone voting on it until January. Because the bill cannot be amended to remove the controversial provisions, the only way to prevent them from becoming law is if a majority of members of the House or the Senate vote against the entire omnibus bill. While this is unlikely in the House, it's possible in the Senate. Many Senators are upset at the large number of controversial things added by the conference committee, including this drug policy issue. Senators are also upset over the very undemocratic way in which the omnibus bill was put together.

The Drug Policy Alliance is urging voters to contact their U.S.
Representatives and Senators and tell them to vote against the omnibus spending bill (HR 2673) because it was put together in an undemocratic manner and contains provisions that suppress free speech.

You can fax your Members of Congress for free at
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=5652&l=11028

For a Washington Post news story on the controversial provision, see:
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=5652&l=11029

The full text of the very large omnibus bill can be viewed by going to http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=5652&l=11030 and clicking on HR2673.

The relevant provision can be viewed here:
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=5652&l=11031

Excerpts from the conference report can be viewed here:
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=5652&l=11032

 

So, if they can ban THIS type of speech, why can't they regulate or ban "issue ads" paid for with undisclosed contributions from anonymous contributors?

Yet one more step in shredding the bill of rights in the name of the drug war.

 

I wonder if DD has anything to say about this.

 

If you can find any documented case of mar1juana EVER killing ANYONE, you will be further ahead than anyone in history. I would never try to claim that there are NO health effects, but there is no way to even begin to make the case that you just claimed is a proven fact. mar1juana was banned in part because politicians claimed that it made people, especially blacks and hispanics, violent and prone to robbery, rape, and murder.

There is NO scientific basis for your statement. If their job was to help people by banning dangerous drugs, alcohol and tobacco would be at the top of the banned list while pot would be redily available, as would MDMA.

It would be one thing if the ads were for MJ itself, but the ads are political, advocating a change in policy. This is political speech that should not be stifled under ANY circumstances, especially considering that the government is running its own advertisements advocating a position in this fight.