DdC

#722491 - Wed Nov 19 2003
DPA: Harsh Drug Bill Coming Soon To Congress

You've been with us all year as we have fought for more compassionate and less expensive drug policies - from fighting the RAVE Act to working to pass medical marijuana legislation that protects HIV/AIDS and Cancer patients.

Now, just before Congress goes out of session, one of the country's harshest drug war extremists, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), is about to introduce some of the scariest legislation we've seen this year.

Rep. Souder's bill increases penalties for many drug offenses and takes away the right of judges to show mercy when it's appropriate. The bill also enacts new draconian penalties that could sentence compassionate Americans that grow and provide medical marijuana to decades in federal prison.

Although it's titled the 'Drug Sentencing Reform Act,' this dangerous bill is all sentencing and no reform. It will destroy the lives of thousands more non-violent Americans.

We know that Rep. Souder wants to introduce his bill within the next couple of weeks and is asking for co-sponsorship from other Representatives. Make sure your Representative doesn't support this bill. Call NOW and tell your Representative not to co-sponsor Rep. Souder's Drug Sentencing Reform Act because it contains no reform and ties the hands of judges.

Actions to Take

1) CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW!
To reach your representative by phone, call the US Capitol Switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 or call your representative's office directly by looking up the phone number on
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/c...=352520&l=9389 .

Tell your Representative: "I'm a constituent and I'm calling to urge Rep. [Name] not to co-sponsor Rep. Souder's Drug Sentencing Reform Act, which he is about to introduce. The Drug Sentencing Reform Act contains no reform and ties the hands of judges. It will punish nonviolent Americans and compassionate citizens that provide patients with medical marijuana. I would like Rep. [Name] to tell me where s/he stands on this bill. S/he can send a letter to me at [Address] or an e-mail to [Address]. Thank you for your time."

2) Tell us what your Representative says.
Email us at ActionFeedback@drugp olicy.org

3) Forward this alert to your friends, family, and co-workers.

More Information

The so-called Drug Sentencing Reform Acthas yet to be introduced, but it will do the following:

** Tie the hands of judges by making it harder for them to reduce sentences for non-violent drug offenders. (It does this by expanding the so-called 'Feeney Amendment' to apply to drug offenses). This will mean longer sentences for non-violent offenses, with taxpayers like you picking up the cost!

** Mandates that most people on parole, probation or supervised release be subjected to random drug testing, even if their original offense had nothing to do with drugs. (If enacted, thousands of non-violent Americans could be sent to prison for years for smoking marijuana in the privacy of their own home and then failing a drug test.)

** Directs the U.S. Sentencing Commission to no longer allow lower sentences for non-violent drug offenders that have certain mitigating circumstances (such as being addicted to drugs) or for non-violent drug offenders that made a mistake and are otherwise good citizens.

** Enacts new draconian penalties for growing, distributing, and providing 'high-potency' marijuana to others, including medical marijuana - which often has a higher potency to better relieve the suffering of AIDS, Cancer, and other patients. If enacted, this provision will allow the federal government to send more medical marijuana patients and their caregivers to federal prison for years, in some cases decades.

** Read Rep. Souder's explanation of his bill

Rep. Mark Souder's Dear Colleague Letter in Support of Drug Sentencing Reform Act
Mark Souder. _NO STATE_. Vol. 0, No. 0. November 19, 2003.
Rep. Souder's letter asking other Representatives to co-sponsor his bill, the Drug Sentencing Reform Act - which increases penalties for many drug offenses, takes away the right of judges to show mercy when it’s appropriate and enacts new draconian marijuana penalties.

Our analysis is based on Souder's explanation and our discussions with congressional staffers.



souder
Incumbent Republican Party candidate for US Representative
from the 3rd Congressional District of Illinois.
souder@mail.house.go v

Souder on the Issues (Oct 1999)
Needle exchange - NO
Medicinal Marijuana - NO
Java script: 2 full quotes on Drugs
Java script: background on Drugs.

Our Education: Up in Smoke!

Excerpt: Few American endeavors of the past two decades have been as rife with cronyism, corruption, and moral hypocrisy as our failed and futile War on Drugs.

One can't just view it as a single issue. Directly or not, it affects every area of American life.

Take the Higher Education Act's 1998 drug provision, which potentially denies federal student financial aid to students convicted of drug offenses. Depending on their prior drug convictions and whether they've completed a lengthy drug rehab program by the aid application due date (for many, this is a logistic impossibility), students can lose their aid for up to two years after their last offense. Known alternatively as the Souder Amendment, after Mark Souder, its white, Bible thumping primary sponsor, the legislation stripped federal aid from more than 40,000 students last year -- aid that's often the make-or-break for economically disadvantaged students seeking a college education. And indications are that it'll get worse. Previously, applicants for aid could leave questions about drug use blank. Now, under the Bush-Cheney regime, all blank answers are the equivalent of answering "Yes," and all applications with them aren't even processed.

Drug Czar Selection Held Up, Souder SaysBy Sylvia A. Smith
Source: Journal Gazette August 03, 2001
Senate Democrats are holding up the appointment of a new drug czar, Rep. Mark Souder, R-4th, and several other House Republicans complained Thursday. "They don't want Walters. It's really not fair," Souder said of John Walters, President Bush's choice to run the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a post often called the drug czar.

DdC

The Walters Confirmation

Body Countby William J. Bennett, John J. DiIulio, Jr., and John P. Walters
Predicted wave of 'predators' fuels debate on stricter laws...
Kids on Superpot!
... xSecretary of Education major preditors William Bennett, the new head of the religious drug treatment, xCIA John J. DiIulio, Jr. and the present Philanthropy Roundtable Money Laundrymat president and ex-Bennett federal drug enforcement official... Johnney Pee Walters.
The book was condemned as inaccurate and alarmist ...
What's Bill Bennett Smoking?
A War Worth Fighting - William Bennett
About Waldo and the Ganjawar

Bennett's Fuzzy Drug-War Victory
More fuzzy drug-war math
William J. Bennett/John P. Walters articles

Bush's Cabinet: John J. DiIulio, Jr. and His Change of Heart
Excerpt: "PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 8 - From his perch as the director of the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which he believes will help uplift many needy people but particularly the most troubled teenagers, John J. Dilulio Jr. conceded today that he wished he had never become the 1990's intellectual pillar for putting violent juveniles in prison and condemning them as 'superpredators.' 'If I knew then what I know now, I would have shouted for prevention of crimes,' Mr. DiIulio said during an interview in the clubby University of Pennsylvania office that he is temporarily vacating to join the White House staff.

'Relax Your Muscles as Much as Possible'
What's life like in our prisons for those 77,000 marijuana convicts? Let's steel our nerves and go visit the Web site http://www.spr.org, where the Los Angeles outfit "Stop Prisoner Rape" has posted the little plain-talking handbill it has prepared for young men entering our prison system, titled "For Prisoners: Advice on Avoiding HIV/AIDS."

The group's handout -- targeted primarily at heterosexual men who have no desire to ever be involved in homosexual activity -- advises:

"HIV/AIDS transmission during a sexual assault is a serious concern. The following are practical tips for reducing your risk....

Still going to tell me that treating them in this manner is just the way you show your "compassion" as you seek to "protect them from the health risks" of lighting up a joint, not to mention "sending the right message to the children"?

"The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure.
"U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Farmer v. Brennan

SPR - Stop Prisoner Rape



Congressmen Urged Raid on MMJ Clubs
From Dale Gieringer canorml@igc.org
by way of "D. Paul Stanford" stanford@crrh.org
To: restore@crrh.org Sun, 04 Nov 2001
Excerpt: DEAR GENERAL ASHCROFT: Accordingly, we are asking you to direct the Department of Justice to immediately seek injunctive relief in federal courts in each of these states similar to the order in California which was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court in Oakland Cannabis.
Sincerely,
Mark E. Souder,Chairman.
Bob Barr,Member of Congress.
Doug Ose,Member of Congress.

Previous pre-Drugczar Anslinger address to Congress
Or present DEAth Merchants Walters and Souder



Cannabis Club Raided by DEA

Panel Asks Metro To Cut Free Public Ads
Excerpt: "I was flabbergasted," Mr. Souder said in a letter to Richard A. White, Metro's chief executive officer. "Drug use and pregnancy are two of the strongest things that prevent young people from finishing school and becoming successful. At a time when the District of Columbia is suffering from the dual epidemics of substance abuse and sexually transmitted disease, we were shocked to learn that Metro is posting advertisements encouraging illegal drug abuse and risky sexual activity."

Viagra Joke #2 - Bob Dole ...
... Bob Dole participated in the testing of Viagra, and has apparently agreed to do some promotionals for the drug. Possible content: "I didn't win the Presidency, but with Viagra I can act like I did!"

Bob Dole On Viagra, But Pepsi BoundBy Heather Koehler
Even though the Pepsi Company made a spoof commercial at the former Senator's expense, he's ready and willing to wash down his Viagra with one of their beverages. He says, "I'm in good health. I'd like to do a Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears."

BACKLASH against Bob Dole's Viagra spot
Excerpt: Former U.S. Senator Bob Dole's TV ad for Pfitzer's Viagra brings the term ED, short for erectile dysfunction, into Americans' living rooms.

Change The Climate
Lawmaker Shocked at Metro Role in Marijuana Ad
Scrap The Pot and Sex Ads
Pro-Pot Ads To Be Posted at 10 Metro Stations

Media Awareness Project: Mark Souder

House Extends Bush's Anti-Drug Office
House Approves Five-Year Extension Of White House Anti-Drug Office
Souder To Address Drug Conference
Bill To Protect Medicinal Pot Users Falls Short In House
Feds Withholding Money From States With Medicinal Marijuana
Drug Czar Ad Budget Deal Sought
Committee Drops Drug Czar Ad Budget Provision
Bill Would Strip States of Cash to Fight Drugs
Punishing Med-Pot States
GOP Measure Would Strengthen Powers of Drug Czar
GOP Effort to Let Drug Czar Propagandize Against Reform Stalled
Move Would Let Drug Czar Campaign
House GOP Targets Medical Marijuana States
Drug Question On Aid Application Under Fire Again

Bill Bendit's Virtues
The Morals of Slotz Bennett Poster

Cannabis News Archives: Urine Testing
Johnney and the Pisstasters Poster

DID HE INHALE?
The "drug free student aid" measure is the brainchild of
Congressman Mark Souder, a Republican from Indiana.

DdC

Casualties of the War on Drugs by marc schanz
You can murder, maim and molest and still get federal financial aid for college.
But get caught smoking a joint, and you have to pay your own way;
if you can afford it, that is.

No Loans for Stoners



Students Vs. The Drug War
Now That Washington Has Turned Its Repressive Drug Policies Against Students,
A Growing Campus Network Is Fighting Back by Phil Zabriskie
Rolling Stone March 15, 2001
When Shawn Heller and Brian Gralnick joined Students for Sensible Drug Policy in 1998, as sophomores at George Washington University, SSDP was just a handful of students from Rochester Institute of Technology. One of them, Kris Lotlikar, was working in Washington, D.C. at the Drug Reform Coordination Network. Heller met Lotlikar and started the second SSDP chapter, which soon included Gralnick. Their focus was decriminalizing marijuana for medical purposes - until Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind,) decided to target college students with drug convictions who were seeking federal loans. In October 1998, a law was passed as part of the Higher Education Act that prohibits any applicant with an adult drug conviction from receiving federal financial aid. No other group, including convicted murders, was similarly excluded. The Drug War had just hit college campuses.

Police Terrorize Students in Ill-Conceived Drug Raid

National Student Group Condemns Heavy-Handed Tactics

Excerpt: WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Wednesday, fourteen Goose Creek police officers occupied Stratford High School in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Police stormed the school and detained 107 students at gunpoint, demanding they lie on the ground and submit to an extensive search involving drug-sniffing dogs. No drugs were found.



Food Stamps Become a Weapon in the War on Drugs
No More Gramm Crackers!

Drug Ruling Worries Some in Public Housing
Justices Rule Drug-Eviction Law Is Fair
It Was Not the Drug, but the Criminalisation

Collateral Consequences: Denial of Basic Social Services Based Upon Drug Use
Prepared by Robin Levi & Judith Appel,
Office of Legal Affairs,Drug Policy Alliance June 13, 2003
Excerpt: Ineligibility applies to all forms of federal financial aid, including grants, student loans, and work-study. According to the bill’s author, Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN), the bill was intended to apply only to students who are convicted while they are in college, not students who were convicted before they got to school. Nonetheless, all students with drug convictions, regardless of when they occurred, have lost benefits under this provision.

Drug Warpor Rep. Mark Souder Takes Questions on Radio Netherlands
The chairman of the US senate committee in charge of tackling drugs - Mark Souder - has called the Netherlands "the Colombia for synthetic drugs" and has threatened to call for economic sanctions unless the Dutch authorities do more to tackle the problem.

Our panellists will include:- US Representative Mark Souder. Congressman Souder says: "If they [in the Netherlands] want to have regulated free drugs and free prostitution and gambling and porn videos all over the place, that's their business, but when the Netherlands' internal policies start affecting the United States, that's another matter. I believe they are trying to do the right thing, but there is a huge difference in how we approach issues. We have a more moral base; they don't have a moral base. For example, less than 20 percent of the Dutch population attends church regularly."



"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it."
Bennito Mussolini

Just Say NO! Nancy Rayguns

Ecstasy: Are 'Scare Tactics' Valid? March 18, 2002
This is your brain. This is your brain after Ecstasy. The healthy brain fills the skull. It's all there. The Ecstasy brain is clearly damaged -shrunken, chunks of it missing, like the brain of an Alzheimer's victim. It is a disturbing image now being broadcast nationwide to warn young people tempted by the wildly popular "club drug" known as Ecstasy, by far the drug of choice today with fans of the big party scene. But it has set off a firestorm of argument among doctors and drug experts over how real the dangers of Ecstasy - a psychedelic stimulant sometimes called "the love drug" - actually are. Critics are calling the federal government's current anti-Ecstasy campaign overhyped "scare tactics" based on faulty science.

Sentencing Guidelines Toughened for Ecstasy
Ecstasy For Agony
Scientists Oppose Punishing 'Ecstasy' More Harshly

Guidlines toughened, what a shocker... Whats Science have to do with Medicine or Addiction? Achcroft Just Us Cop Science Jailing for Geeeeeeeeezus, Legislating Morality...

Drug labelling error forces retraction...After RAVE Ax Passes
Excerpt: WASHINGTON (AP) - A prestigious scientific journal is retracting a study about the effects of the drug Ecstasy on the brain because the animals used in the research were given a different drug. The researchers blamed the error on a labelling mix-up. Previous studies had reported on the brain hazards of Ecstasy, and the researchers said the problems with their study did not call into question the earlier ones.

Dance Safe!

Report of Ecstasy Drug's Great Risks Is Retracted
It'll kill you -- wait, no it won't
Results Retracted On Ecstasy Study
Report of Ecstasy Drug's Great Risks

SECOND ECSTASY STUDY RETRACTED Mon, 15 Sep 2003
Excerpt: Johns Hopkins scientists find new error involving vial mislabeled in the first experiment. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have retracted a second study linking the drug Ecstasy to a certain type of brain damage because once again the wrong drug was given to lab animals. Dr. Una D. McCann, a neuroscientist involved in both experiments, said a letter of retraction was sent Thursday to a medical journal, which she declined to identify until editors there decide how to handle the matter.

Scientists discovered the mistake after they checked lab records to see if methamphetamine from a mislabeled vial used in the first experiment had been used elsewhere. "As you might imagine, we systematically went through the books to find out which, if any, of our published studies involved the same [vial]," she said Thursday. "We did find one, and a letter of retraction was sent out to the journal today."

DdC

What the WHO doesn't want you to know about cannabis
Marijuana Drug Czar Distorts Report
The Rave Act stops NORML benefit concert

RAVE Act Protests Across the Country, May 31, 2003
Have you ever wanted to dance for a good cause? Here's your chance. On Saturday, May 31, protest gatherings will be held in cities across the country to call for repeal of the RAVE Act. Click here to find a protest near you.

The RAVE Act Has Landed
When Holding a Party Is a Crime

Drug Czar Manipulating Data in a Report to Congress
Bill Would Outlaw Internet Drug Information
Meth Bill/Free Speech by Richard Lake


PREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS

Breaking the Chains: Communities of Color and the War on Drugs
Excerpt: The Alliance’s “Breaking the Chains” (BTC) project is preparing to host its third major gathering on the impact of the drug war on communities of color. The event, to take place next March in Houston, Texas, will build on the successes of the Alliance’s groundbreaking BTC conferences in Los Angeles (2002), and Racine, Wisconsin (2003). BTC organizers anticipate an equally diverse group of community activists, drug treatment providers, family members of those incarcerated for drug offenses and others to gather in Texas.
NEW DATES: April 1-3, 2004 Houston, TX

Million Man Madness (How the Drug War is also a Race War)
Excerpt: Last week, Congressman Mark Souder of Indiana, who represents a district that is over 92% white, wrote of the drug war that "gross disparities in conviction rates (between blacks and whites) do not exist." Oh, but they do. Drug offenses are the largest single category of crimes for which Americans are serving time. And blacks comprise more than 55% of those convicted for those offenses, even while reliable studies show that rates of drug use among African Americans are proportionate to their numbers in society.

A report issued this week by the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives shows that by the year 2000, the number of African American adults behind bars will reach one million. At that time, roughly one in ten black men will be imprisoned. Not since the days of slavery have so many people of African decent lived in shackles. And no other nation on earth, as far as anyone can tell, is keeping so large a percentage of any ethnic or racial minority locked up in cages. Clearly, something is wrong.

Google: Mark Souder



Drug War Rant by Pete Guither

Saturday, August 2, 2003

Today in Marijuana History

August 2, 1937: The Marijuana Tax Act is passed, enacting federal marijuana prohibition for the first time. Harry Anslinger commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, tells Congress during a remarkably brief hearing, "Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death." William Woodward, representative of the AMA testifies against the legislation, saying "The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug." On the floor of the house, the entire discussion was:

Member from upstate New York: "Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?" Speaker Rayburn: "I don't know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it's a narcotic of some kind." "Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?" Member on the committee jumps up and says: "Their Doctor Wentworth came down here. They support this bill 100 percent."

Not true, but good enough to get Republican support and passage.

August 2, 1977: President Jimmy Carter tells Congress, "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana."

Human Rights & the WoD * November Coalition

(FAMM Foundation) * F.E.A.R. * M.A.M.A.

Cannabis News * MAP Inc.Org. * Drug Sense * N.O.R.M.L.

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