Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002
Subject: #249 Just Say NO! To Harsher Ecstasy Sentencing
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #249, Jan 14, 2002
Just Say NO! To Harsher Ecstasy Sentencing
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The Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) has asked our assistance
in reaching California voters about this important action. Please help
us both as below, and by alerting any California citizens who may wish
to help. Here is the DRCNet alert:
Your help is needed to stop SB 1103 and AB 1416, bills in the
California legislature that would enact a mandatory minimum 90-day
jail term for being under the influence of MDMA (ecstasy). SB 1103 and
AB 1416 would also classify MDMA as a schedule I substance under
California law, and would further fuel the government’s anti-ecstasy
hysteria, waste taxpayer dollars and violate privacy.
Please visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ca-ecstasy/ to register
your disapproval of this legislation with the California legislature
and the governor. This is a very important issue because most drug
enforcement is at the state or local level, which SB 1103 and AB 1416
will heavily impact.
When you’re done, please call, write or fax your State Senator and
your State Assembly member to make even more impact on this issue
(info below); and last but not least, forward this alert or use the
tell-a-friend page on our web site to spread the word. Again, please
visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ca-ecstasy/ to contact your
legislators through our on-line system.
Even if MDMA were the dire threat some claim it to be, this bill would
still be the wrong way to go and would do great harm to our nation’s
youth. Yet the government’s reaction to ecstasy use is wildly
disproportionate to the actual evidence. For example, the Drug Abuse
Warning Network found only 27 known cases of ecstasy-related
fatalities during the five-year period spanning 1994-1998 throughout
the entire United States.
While these 27 deaths are tragedies, that number is dwarfed by the
millions who died from tobacco during that time, the hundreds of
thousands from alcohol or the tens of thousands from aspirin! Even in
face of rising use of ecstasy, the numbers are still minuscule.
Perhaps worse, this law could stifle the provision of much-needed harm
reduction information and resources to the very communities of young
people we say we want to protect — the kind of help that could have
saved those 27 people. And perhaps worst of all, SB 1103 and AB 1416
go beyond conventional drug possession or distribution laws in the
extent to which it creates a “thought crime,” merely being under the
drug’s influence.
Again, visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ca-ecstasy/ to contact the
legislature in opposition to this bill. Our web site will send an
e-mail or fax to your state legislators and the governor; you may use
our pre written version, or better yet, modify it or write your own.
To follow up with your State Senator by phone, fax or mail, visit
http://www.sen.ca.gov to look up your Senator and his or her contact
information. If you don’t have web access, you can get help from the
Secretary of the Senate office at (916) 445-4251. Visit
http://www.assembly.ca.gov for corresponding information on your State
Assembly member.
Visit the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics at
http://www.alchemind.org/dll/sb1103index.htm for extensive information
on this bill and related issues.
Visit http://www.dancesafe.org for harm reduction information and
resources on MDMA and other “club drugs.” Visit http://www.maps.org
for information on MDMA research and other related topics.
Again, please take two minutes and point your web browser to
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ca-ecstasy/ to take a stand against
hysteria and injustice.
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The Lindesmith Center – Drug Policy Foundation has also issued an
alert. This page allows you to FAX the members of the California
Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees http://www.drugpolicy.org/action/
More information is available in The Week On-line article “New
California Bill Would Mandate 90-Day Minimum Jail Term for Being Under
Ecstasy’s Influence” http://www.drcnet.org/wol/219.html#ca-ecstasy
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efforts and be motivated to follow suit.
This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one very effective way of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.
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