The Underground Church of the Most High

Recently, the White House & ONDCP tried to slip past a Reauthorization bill:

ONDCP Reauthorization: Your Calls Were Heard!!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Drug Policy Alliance" <alerts@actioncenter.drugpolicy.org>
To: <jini@hcis.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 12:11 PM
Subject: ONDCP Reauthorization: Your Calls Were Heard!!!


Friends, Supporters, and Members,

Good News! Congress heard your calls. After a very contentious
hearing today on the ONDCP Reauthorization bill, the Government
Reform Committee decided to postpone voting on the bill. They
postponed the vote specifically because of the troubling provisions
we oppose: legislation that would give bureaucrats the power to
use taxpayer money to defeat pro-reform ballot measures and
candidates; and the diversion of millions of dollars from fighting
major drug traffickers to arresting AIDS and Cancer patients that
use medical marijuana.

This is a huge victory - it means they don't have the votes needed
to pass it as written.

Many Congressional offices have told us their phones have been
ringing off the hook. We've lobbied Members of Congress, organized
resistance, and got the media to shine a light on this legislation,
but none of it would have mattered without Members of Congress
hearing directly from you. You made the difference! Thank you, thank
you, thank you.

Of course, we're not out of the water yet. Congress returns the week
of June 2 and there is still a fight ahead to remove the grievous
provisions. We'll continue to lobby hard in DC and will let you know
in a couple of weeks when we need you to call or fax again.

Thanks again for your support.

Bill Piper
Associate Director of National Affairs

PS. the following article was on the front-page of today's Roll Call,
a DC newspaper that every Member of Congress and Congressional staffer
reads: Roll Call Article

Dear NORML Supporters:

Today we are writing with more good news. Thanks in large part to the thousands of e-mails and letters generated by drug law reform supporters over the past week, Congress has decided to postpone voting on HR 2086, the ONDCP Reauthorization Act, while they debate changing some of the more insulting provisions.

In the past week, we two legislative alerts regarding provisions of this bill. One alerted you to the fact that the bill authorized reallocating $60.5 million from High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to target medical marijuana users. The second dealt with the ONDCP allocation of over $1 billion to fund the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, despite the government?s own studies proving it has been a massive failure.

It appears that your letters had a tremendous impact. During yesterday?s hearing, several members of the committee, including Diane Watson (D-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), directly challenged key aspects of these provisions. In addition, writers form the Associated Press have also published a pair of national news stories alerting readers to these controversial amendments.

Proponents of HR 2086 are now considering which provisions to remove and which to alter before moving it out of committee. It is vital that you continue to flood them with letters as they debate this legislation. They need to know that if they approve a slightly watered down version of the same bill, we will hold them accountable.

Please take two minutes to send pre-written letters to your Congressmen urging them not to refund the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and not to spend federal money targeting medical marijuana patients. These letters, and more, are available at: HERE

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Kris Krane
Associate Director
NORML
Back 2 TokeNews

Back 2 T.O.K.E.

Back 2 UCMH