We have a lot of good news, and a little bad news.
As you may recall, we identified six federal drug war programs that could be cut to save taxpayers a lot of money. After a lot of lobbying – and thousands of emails to members of Congress by supporters like you – Congress has cut these programs by $300 million. This is a tremendous savings! The Drug Czar will have $20 million less next year for those stupid anti-marijuana TV ads. States will have $185 million less for rogue drug war task forces that have caused problems from Tulia, Texas to Flint, Michigan. Other federal drug war bureaucracies will have about $100 million less.
You also helped us fight Congressman Mark Souder’s draconian methamphetamine bill. We’re happy to report that the harsh mandatory minimums have been removed from the bill. This is a big victory for the Drug Policy Alliance, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative and other groups that have been fighting against new mandatory minimums.
Additionally, two things were added to his bill that the Alliance has been calling for all year – a program to provide grants to states for treatment programs for pregnant women and women with children, and a federal study to look at ways to establish a federal treatment-instead-of-incarceration program for offenders with substance abuse problems. When we started our campaign, Souder’s bill was all mandatory minimums and no drug treatment. Now it contains drug treatment and no mandatory minimums! We would like to thank the thousands of you who wrote to your members of Congress!!
Unfortunately, we couldn’t take out a provision that applies an enhanced sentence of up to 20 years for making or selling methamphetamine in a household where a child resides. Though methamphetamine in the presence of children is a serious problem, this provision could devastate families by giving thousands of mothers long prison sentences when other options, such as treatment, are available. Even more unfortunately, Congress added the meth bill to the PATRIOT Act, making it virtually impossible to stop. Congress will vote on the PATRIOT Act sometime in December. We’re still lobbying to improve the bad provisions in it.
Finally, our bill to suspend federal laws that prohibit Katrina victims with drug convictions from receiving public housing, food stamps, public assistance, and school loans now has 10 co-sponsors. We hope to move the bill in December or early next year. If you haven’t faxed your member of Congress in support of the bill, please do so today.
Also, please consider giving a contribution to our work. We depend on donations from people like you to advance the reform of our nation’s drug laws.
Thank you for your commitment to drug policy reform!
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