- TO: Supporters of marijuana policy reform FROM: Steve
Fox, MPP director of government relations DATE: Thursday, January 15, 2004
SUBJECT: Please urge Congress to remove provision in pending bill that
would block marijuana policy reform ads
-
- ======
-
- With a provision that is in direct violation of the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Congress is on the verge of prohibiting
ads supporting marijuana policy reform from being displayed on public transportation
systems across the nation.
-
- Please visit http://www.mpp.org/action0903 today to tell
your three members of Congress that supporters of marijuana policy reform
should not and will not be silenced.
-
- Please visit http://www.mpp.org/action0903 to send a
fax to your U.S. representative and two U.S. senators to ask them to remove
the "Istook Amendment" from the federal government's omnibus
spending bill. MPP has prepared 10 pre-written letters from which you can
choose. Each of the letters not only objects to the Istook Amendment, but
also educates members of Congress about the need to reform our nation's
marijuana laws.
-
- The provision at issue was inserted by U.S. Rep. Ernest
Istook (R-OK) into the Consolidated Appropriations Act - 2004 (H.R. 2673)
while this bill was in a House/Senate conference committee. The provision
would prohibit all local transit agencies from displaying marijuana policy
reform advertising if they receive funding from the federal government
-- which is most transit agencies.
-
- This is just one more example of the desire by federal
officials to have the public hear only one message on the subject of marijuana:
"Marijuana is bad and must be prohibited." Over the past six
years, Congress has given the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to convey this message.
But now that advocates of marijuana policy reform want to promote an alternative
viewpoint -- with their own money, no less -- marijuana prohibitionists
in Congress are trying to silence them. This is called "viewpoint
discrimination," and it violates the First Amendment.
-
- MPP has a two-part plan for fighting this provision:
-
- * First, with your assistance, we will overwhelm congressional
offices with faxes that oppose the provision and support marijuana policy
reform. Please visit http://www.mpp.org/action0903 to send one of these
faxes today.
-
- * Second, if this wave of public opposition does not
result in the removal of the Istook Amendment, MPP will sue the federal
government to have the provision declared unconstitutional. MPP will not
only succeed in this legal fight, but we will also succeed in embarrassing
the drug warriors when our legal fight generates free publicity for our
issue.
-
- Today, MPP is delivering a letter to Congressman Istook
and the other members of Congress who will decide the fate of the Istook
Amendment, outlining our plans to sue the government should this provision
become law. (See http://www.mpp.org/pdf/kampia_to_istook.pdf for the letter.)
Now is the time to share your own outrage with your three members of Congress.
If you and the 41,000 other subscribers on this e-mail list speak out against
the Istook Amendment, we could win the fight in Congress before it even
makes it to the courts.
-
- So please visit http://www.mpp.org/action0903 and send
a fax today. The entire process will take just a couple of minutes. And
remember, your fax will not only encourage members of Congress to oppose
the provision, but it will educate them on the subject of marijuana policy
reform.
-
- Thank you for taking action.
|
