Action Alert update: H.R. 1528

Thanks to JackL for unearthing this link to the House Judiciary hearings on H.R. 1528. It has a link to a RealPlayer video of the hearing and key transcripts of the testimony on the right hand sidebar.

The first three are the usual suspects using the customary language of the "save our children" segment of prohibition profiteers. The DEA guy leads with a statistic on 15,000 children going hungry because their parents were addicted to drugs. Of course he fails to mention that they form a small part of the 12 million children going to bed hungry at night in this country, many of them because their parents are in jail for being addicted to drugs.

Former MA Assistant AG and drug war warrior and now defense lawyer William Brownsberger's testimony is well worth reading. He analyzes the school zone aspect of the bill and the newly added enhancements of child care centers and treatment facilities and notes it would encompass such a large and amorphous area that any deterrent effect would be lost.

The bill as stands, would create a universal enhancement of drug crimes and Brownsberger's research shows that the zones have virtually no effect on the sales to children. In fact most "school zone crimes" happen outside of school hours and involve adults only.

This is an ugly bill folks. It practically means that anyone living in an urban or even suburban location, could be liable for serious criminal penalties just for smoking a joint with a friend. But it's even bigger than that. According to the letter you can send in two clicks, "it essentially creates a mandatory minimum for EVERY federal crime (not just drugs, but also environmental offenses, campaign finance violations, and other federal crimes). The bill also increases penalties for many non-violent drug offenses, and creates new crimes, such as a mandatory 2-year prison term for any college student that suspects someone is selling marijuana on a college campus and fails to report it to the police within 24 hours."

Please take action now. I just did and it took approximately one minute to send the letter even though I edited it some.