FREE SPEECH BECOMES DRUG WAR CASUALTY

Gutting The Fourth Amendment Didn't Work, So Warriors Now Have Other
Freedoms In Their Sights

First the drug warriors attached our right to be free from unreasonable
searches and seizures. In the name of fighting the illicit drug trade,
they told us they needed to be able to use drug-sniffing dogs on cars
without a warrant, to search inside garbage cans and peer into backyards in
helicopters without a court order, to seize cash, the family car and boats
where trace amounts of drugs were found. And the courts let them.

Congress has decided that the right of citizens to be heard in an election
is disposable -- that is, if Congress doesn't like the election results.

After citizens got a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot in
Washington D.C., U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) slipped an amendment into a
massive federal appropriations bill to prohibit the District of Columbia
Board of Elections and Ethics from spending any money on it.

Although exit polls show that 69 percent of voters approved the November
initiative, we may never know the official results. John Ferren, the
district's corporation counsel, estimates that it would cost only $1.64 for
a clerk to press the computer button to make the results known.

This kind of viewpoint-based restriction on voting rights violates the
First Amendment.

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of the National
Capital Area and joined by the district seeks to emancipate the election
results and limit Congress' ability to use its power of the purse to stymie
voters in the future.

"Congress wants to prohibit any initiative that would reduce the penalties
for marijuana, but allow any initiative that would increase those
penalties," said ACLU legal director Arthur Spitzer. "That is like saying
voters can vote for Republicans but not for Democrats.

Restricting speech by doctors is another way our nation's drug warriors are
trashing the First Amendment of further their cause.

After initiatives passed in California and Arizona in 1996 to legalize
marijuana for medical use, the Justice Department, drug czar Barry
McCaffrey and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Thomas Constantine
pledged to punish any doctor who recommended its use.

Again, the ACLU sued, and a federal district judge in San Francisco issued
a temporary restraining order blocking the federal government from
prosecuting doctors for recommending marijuana. Judge Fern Smith ruled
that the government was trying to silence a medical viewpoint with which it
disagreed.

Another innovative approach was concocted by Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.)
who introduced unsuccessful legislation in the past to strip the tax
exemption from any nonprofit group advocating the reform of drug laws.

Rational, nuanced arguments persuaded voters in six states so far (and
probably the District of Columbia) to legalize medical marijuana, and more
will probably follow.

Our government's doomsday rhetoric on drugs is no longer being swallowed
whole. Which makes the powers that be very nervous, and correspondingly
makes this a dangerous time for free speech.

Checked-by: Richard Lake