CONGRESS PLANS POT-INFO BAN

One month after US Drug Czar General McCaffrey told a Congressional
committee that he was getting "rolled in the public arena" by Cannabis
Culture and other pot-supporters, a bill has been introduced into the US
Congress which would ban all pro-pot books and websites. Anything which
explains how to grow or use cannabis, or any other prohibited plant or
substance, would be completely censored.

The bill is called the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act, but its real
target is magazines, books and websites which dissent from the war on drugs
mentality.

The bill is backed by a coalition of a dozen senators, led by California
Democrat Dianne Feinstein, a longtime supporter of internet regulation, and
Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, the arch-conservative Mormon Minister who
chairs the Senate Judiciary committee.

Although this bill has a ways to go before becoming law, and although it's
unconstitutional, if it is passed the repercussions to pot culture will be
immediate and severe. How many magazine distributors and printers would be
willing to challenge the US government on behalf of their pro-cannabis
clients? Likely very few, which could leave magazines like this one
fighting for survival without any means of producing or distributing their
product.

The part of the bill most worrisome to pro-pot magazines and websites is as
follows:

"It shall be unlawful for any person to teach or demonstrate the
manufacture of a controlled substance, or to distribute by any means
information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of a
controlled substance, with the intent that the teaching, demonstration, or
information be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes
a Federal crime."

This would ban all books and magazines with grow tips, doctors' advice to
medical-pot patients, harm-reduction pamphlets explaining safe use of
banned drugs, brochures explaining needle sterilization and needle
exchange, and even website links to other sites which do any of these
things. Since hemp cultivation remains a federal felony, books on how to
grow and process industrial hemp would also be banned.

The penalty for violating this info-ban is up to 10 years imprisonment, and
a hefty fine.

The federal Crime Control Act of 1990 makes it a crime to "sell or offer
for sale drug paraphernalia," a law that the Supreme Court upheld as
constitutional in 1994. This new bill expands and modifies this law, as
well as other federal anti-drug legislation.

On July 22, the bill was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Judiciary. Further hearings were held on July 28, with no indication of
when consideration on the bill will continue.

MORE COPS, MORE JAILS

The Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act has a number of other nasty
surprises in it as well, including the creation of many more DEA agents,
with new offices to be stationed in "small and mid-sized communities." The
added manpower will be used to assist local law enforcement in
"interrogating suspects, conducting surveillance operations, and collecting
evidence" against drug users.

Another worrisome provision of this bill would modify the Controlled
Substances Act to make "risk of harm to the environment" while
manufacturing a banned substance as being equivalent to "risk of harm to
human life", and upping the penalty for this to a mandatory minimum of 10
years! This is in addition to any other penalties for the actual
cultivation/production. Although Hatch claimed this is to snare the
treacherous methamphetamine maker who pollutes the environment with his
lab, this vaguely defined section would certainly include any pot farmers
caught growing in forest or park lands.

Further, in the specific cases of amphetamine or methamphetamine, the onus
would be on the manufacturer to prove that he was not causing risk of harm
to human life or the environment, or else face the mandatory 10 years
imprisonment.

OPPRESSION TAG-TEAM

The Dianne Feinstein/Orrin Hatch team-up is not new. Although from
different parties, they share a passion for scare-tactics and government
control. In 1996 they joined forces to make it a felony to possess
computer-generated images of naked children. Feinstein has also tried to
pass bills to ban secure internet encryption products and bomb-making
information.

Hatch, meanwhile, has had great success passing bills labeled as being
anti-methamphetamine. He co-sponsored the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Act
of 1999, which expanded drug courts and dramatically increased the
mandatory minimums for methamphetamine offences. The 1999 Rural
Methamphetamine Use Response Act also expanded police powers and budgets to
fight the methamphetamine "epidemic." Although both are harmful pieces of
pro-drug-war legislation, neither is as horrifying as the current bill.

Here's some of Senator Orrin Hatch's speech made while introducing this
repressive legislation:

"I was shocked to discover that those who embrace the drug counter-culture
these days are using the internet to promote, advertise, and sell illegal
drugs and drug paraphernalia.

"In 1992, Congress passed a law that made it illegal for anyone to sell or
offer for sale drug paraphernalia. This law resulted in the closings of
numerous 'head shops,' yet, now the out-of-business store owners are
selling their illegal drug paraphernalia on the internet…

"This bill will not only prevent web sites from advertising drug
paraphernalia for sale, but it will also prohibit web sites that do not
sell drug paraphernalia from allowing other sites that do from advertising
on its web site…

"There are even web sites that advertise for sale marijuana and poppy
seeds, along with growing and nurturing instructions. This type of behavior
is not only reprehensible, but it is also illegal, and this clarifying
provision can help stop this behavior from continuing over the internet."

CENSORSHIP HAPPENS

This bill should be of great concern to pot-people across America. Although
some might think that such an oppressive censorship law could never pass,
take note that it already exists in many other supposedly democratic
nations. All "literature for illicit drug use" was banned in Canada in
1988, and grow books and High Times magazines were unavailable for almost a
decade. Their import or sale is still punishable under Canada's Criminal
Code with a $100,000 fine and six months in jail, although the law is now
only rarely enforced, simply because we have brazenly forced our government
to accept our existence.

England and France also have severe anti-cannabis information laws, and a
few years back British author Mick Marlow spent six months in jail and had
all copies of his grow-book Tricameral Sinsemilla burned. France has also
fined and jailed pro-pot website owners and magazine publishers.

A similar censorship law has come up on the state level. In early 2000 the
Illinois state legislature will debate Bill 792, which would ban providing
"information about cannabis by the Internet" if the information could be
used for an illegal activity. The bill unanimously passed the state House
last year, but got stuck in the Senate due to negative publicity. It is due
to come up again during the coming months.

Given that Senator Hatch has already passed two anti-methamphetamine bills
this year, there is no reason to believe that he cannot pass this one as
well. The passage of bills through the US Congress can seem slow, but
observers predict that unless opposed, the bill could become law before the
presidential election in November 2000.

[NOTE: The following information has been updated by Dana Larsen and
includes information not found in the original article]

FOR MORE INFORMATION

- - If you want to stop this bill, then please send a letter or email to your
local and national media, alerting them to this bill and its negative
repercussions. Also contact your local representative and urge them to
oppose this bill.

- For detailed legislative information about this bill, go to:
http://thomas.loc.gov/ and do a search for S. 486 and HR. 2987

(note - if any of the URLs are not clickable links in your browser you
may copy the lines into your location field)

- For the Senate summary and status info:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:SN00486:

- For the Senate testimony from when the bill was passed, click on item 6
at this page:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r106:FLD001:S14932

- The complete text of the House bill can be found at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.2987:

- For the most recent House of Representatives summary and status info:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:HR02987:

- - To read the current US anti-paraphernalia law which this bill expands:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/21/863.html

- - For the House of Representatives subcommittee on Crime:
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/sub106.htm

- - For the House of Representatives subcommittee on Health and the
Environment: http://www.house.gov/commerce/health.html

SPONSORS AND SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS

The House version of the bill is sponsored by Rep Chris Cannon, and
co-sponsored by Representatives Howard Berman, Ken Calvert, Charles Canady,
Michael Forbes, Elton Gallegly, Jim Gibbons, Asa Hutchinson, Zoe Lofgren,
Bill
McCollum, Jerry Moran, George Nethercutt, Charles Pickering, James Rogan,
Pete Sessions, Matt Salmon and James Talent.

The members of the House Subcommittee on Crime are:

REPUBLICANS

Bill McCollum, FL, Chairman
Steve Chabot, OH
Bob Barr, GA
George W. Gekas, PA
Howard Coble, NC
Lamar S. Smith, TX
Charles T. Canady, FL
Asa Hutchinson, AR

DEMOCRATS

Robert C. Scott, VA
Martin T. Meehan, MA
Steven R. Rothman, NJ
Anthony D. Weiner, NY
Sheila Jackson-Lee, TX

The members of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment are:

REPUBLICANS

Michael Bilirakis, FL, Chairman
Fred Upton, MI
Cliff Stearns, FL
James C. Greenwood, PA
Nathan Deal, GA
Richard Burr, NC
Brian P. Bilbray, CA
Ed Whitfield, KY
Greg Ganske, IA
Charlie Norwood, GA
Tom A. Coburn, OK, Vice Chairman
Rick Lazio, NY
Barbara Cubin, WY
John B. Shadegg, AZ
Charles W. 'Chip' Pickering, MS
Ed Bryant, TN

DEMOCRATS

Sherrod Brown, OH
Henry A. Waxman, CA
Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ
Peter Deutsch, FL
Bart Stupak, MI
Gene Green, TX
Ted Strickland, OH
Diana DeGette, CO
Thomas M. Barrett, WI
Lois Capps, CA
Ralph M. Hall, TX
Edolphus Towns, NY
Anna G. Eshoo, CA