Call to Action - Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

Thanks to Jeralyn at Talk Left for reminding me about this upcoming bill in the House of Representatives. Ben Masel had alerted me to this last week when I couldn't get to a computer and it would have slipped past me without my having taken any action otherwise. You can contact your representative easily in a few clicks through Marijuana Policy Project and simply send their prewritten letter or use their template to send one of your own. I generally do the latter and sent the following using their instant messaging feature. Feel free to cut and paste my version if you like (using your own representative's name of course). If you don't know who that is, MPP will figure it out for you by using the address info you supply.

Dear Mr. Neal:

I urge you to oppose the Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act (H.R. 4547) and to cosponsor the Justice in Sentencing Act of 2004 (H.R. 5103).

Further, I urge and expect you to work to restore judicial discretion across the board and repeal all mandatory minimum sentencing that is currently hamstringing justice in America.

We appoint judges to weigh the facts and then make a reasoned decision to fit a punishment to the crime. Let them do their job or we might as well just abolish the entire criminal justice system and have defendants submit to a computer program, which is virtually what happens under mandatory minimums anyway.

I will be watching for your vote on these bills and will remember how you voted come November when it's time to reassess your job performance.

Thank you in advance for doing the right thing and voting against HR 4547 and supporting HR 5103.

Sincerely,

Libby Spencer

Don't wait. Do it right now while you're thinking of it.