ISTOOK'S ILLEGAL AMENDMENT

On February 18, the Marijuana Policy Project joined with three other
national organizations in a lawsuit aimed at overturning one of the
most egregious attacks on free speech in decades. Anyone who values
our democracy - Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal -
should hope we succeed.

Our organizations attempted to buy a billboard ad on Washington,
D.C.'s Metro public transit system questioning the wisdom of our
nation's marijuana laws. The ad was rejected, not because of any Metro
policy, but because federal law now makes any such advertising
effectively illegal on public transit systems. Our suit seeks to have
this law, put into effect by an amendment sponsored by Rep. Ernest
Istook (R-OK), declared unconstitutional.

The "Istook Amendment" - attached to the recently-enacted spending
bill - denies federal funding to any transit agency that allows the
display of any advertisement supporting "the legalization or medical
use" of marijuana or any other drug listed in Schedule I of the
federal Controlled Substances Act.

Why should you care?

Because 75 years ago, America's mothers and grandmothers organized to
repeal Prohibition. They did this not because they wanted their
children to drink, but because they saw that the attempt to ban
alcoholic beverages caused far more harm than it prevented.
Prohibition didn't stop people from drinking. It simply handed the
liquor trade over to gangsters, sent the violent crime rate through
the roof and put children in more danger than ever.

We should all be grateful that those moms succeeded.

The Marijuana Policy Project exists to minimize the harm associated
with marijuana, and - just like the mothers who organized against
Prohibition - we believe an honest look at the facts shows marijuana
prohibition to be a deadly, destructive failure.

Apparently, the message that marijuana prohibition has failed is so
powerful that the federal government has resorted to silencing those
who wish to convey it. While it is more than willing to spend our
taxpayer dollars plastering the DC Metro and other public transit
systems with ads supporting prohibition, it is afraid to let private
groups buy ad space to say, "Wait a minute. This isn't working."

The truth is the government is silencing us because they know that we
are right.

We are right when we say law enforcement resources would be better
directed toward preventing and investigating violent crimes, rather
than arresting marijuana smokers.

We are right when we say it is illogical to arrest people for smoking
marijuana when every major government study on the subject has
concluded that marijuana is far less harmful - to the user and to
society - than alcohol.

And we are right when we join with American Academy of Family
Physicians and the American Nurses Association to say that marijuana
can be an effective medicine for seriously ill patients.

So, the battle over the Istook Amendment is a battle to protect our
First Amendment rights, but this is part of a larger war to reform
this nation's illogical marijuana laws. And just as we have no doubt
that we will succeed in this lawsuit, we are equally certain that, in
time, we will win the war as well.