-------- Original Message --------
Subject: End-2000 Alert: John Ashcroft, Clemencies, Hemp Regs
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 13:43:09 -0500
X-Loop: openpgp.net
From: DRCNet
To: drc-natl@drcnet.org
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Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
Rapid Response Team
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End-2000 Alert: John Ashcroft, Clemencies, Hemp Regs
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12/28/00
Dear friend of drug law reform:
As the year winds to an end, with Congress in recess and many
of you on vacation, drug reformers are faced with not one, or
even two, but three urgent action items -- as well as a little
bit of good news. Please take a few moments to call Congress
and the President this week -- it could make all the
difference in the coming year!
URGENT ACTION ITEM #1: John Ashcroft
As you may have read in mainstream news accounts, Sen. John
Ashcroft, who was defeated for reelection in Missouri by the
late Gov. Mel Carnahan, has been nominated by George W. Bush
to be the next US Attorney General. It is vital that his
nomination be opposed. John Ashcroft is one of the most
ideologically extreme drug warriors, and his appointment would
spell trouble for sentencing/prison policies, medical
marijuana, needle exchange, racial profiling, you name it. We
will be publishing much more information about him in
tomorrow's issue of The Week Online with DRCNet, and will be
issuing detailed action alerts, by January 4th when the new
Senate is sworn in, for opposing him on a state-by-state
basis.
In the meantime, please call your two US Senators and ask them
to oppose the controversial John Ashcroft nomination. You can
reach your Senators (or find out who they are) by calling the
Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. You can also
visit http://www.senate.gov to look up their web sites and
find out their direct numbers in Washington and their local
phone numbers and locations in your state. Make an in-person
visit if you can!
URGENT ACTION ITEM #2: Save Industrial Hemp
Drug warriors at the DEA and ONDCP are trying to ban a whole
range of products made with industrial, non-drug hemp. Their
motivation, ostensibly, is that hemp interferes with drug
testing and creates false positives, causing problems with
federal drug testing programs more complicated. Really, they
are simply committed to a bizarre ideology that considers hemp
a drug, even though you can't get high with it. But in doing
so, they are attempting to administratively rewrite 63 years
of US law that clearly makes an exception for low-THC hemp in
the marijuana laws. Their actions threaten to make a
perfectly legal, fledgling industry and its patrons all
victims of the drug war.
What is happening is that DEA is planning to publish three
"interim rules," which would immediately become effective
while they go through the longer process. First, the DEA
proposes to change its interpretation of existing law to bring
hemp products within the purview of the Controlled Substances
Act; second, to change DEA regulations to agree with the new
interpretation; and third, to exempt traditional hemp products
not designed for human consumption, such as paper and
clothing, from being subject to the Controlled Substances Act.
(See http://www.drcnet.org/wol/165.html#hempembargo for
further information on the looming Hemp Embargo.)
For the rules to become effective, several federal agencies
have to sign off on them. The so-called Dept. of Justice has
already done so, but they still have to go through Customs,
Treasury, Commerce, and the Office of Management and Budget.
Please call your US Representative and your two US Senators;
ask them to oppose the DEA's illegal hemp regulations and to
put pressure on these agencies to reject the regulations.
Again, you can reach all three of them via the Congressional
Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or look up their DC and local
contact information and locations via http://www.senate.gov
and http://www.house.gov on the web.
URGENT ACTION ITEM #3: Appeal to Clinton for More Clemencies
Less than an hour after the last issue of The Week Online with
DRCNet was published, the news came out that President Bill
Clinton had granted clemencies to two prisoners whose names
are well known to drug reformers: Dorothy Gaines and Kemba
Smith, now home with their families. That's the good news;
read more about it in tomorrow's issue.
The action item is to urge Clinton to release more such
prisoners. There are hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug
offenders in the nation's penal institutions, tens of
thousands of them in the federal system over which Clinton has
jurisdiction. It is wonderful that Dorothy and Kemba have
gotten to go home, but two is not enough!
In particular, the 350+ "safety-valve" prisoners should be
released. These are people who would likely be free today if
they had been sentenced after the passage of the 1994 Crime
Bill, which allowed judges to reduce the sentences of certain
drug offenders who would otherwise get five or ten year
mandatory minimums. The law was almost passed with
retroactivity, but that fell victim to a frenzied election-
year intersection of drug and gun politics. Many similar
people's sentences have begun and ended since then. There is
no reason not to release them.
Another prisoner who deserves to be released is our friend
Todd McCormick, a medical marijuana patient and activist,
whose health is ill-equipped to handle incarceration. Of
course, there are many prisoners who deserve to be released,
and we will publish more names early next year.
Clinton has until the end of his term, January 20th, to issue
more pardons or clemencies. Please call the White House
Comment Line at (202) 456-1111, get through to a live
operator, thank the President for releasing Dorothy Gaines and
Kemba Smith but ask him to release more prisoners, such as the
350+ safety-valve prisoners and Todd McCormick, before his
term expires.
Stay tuned for more information and alerts on these urgent
action items. Please consider making a donation to DRCNet to
help us provide this service. Contributions from readers like
yourself are our primary means of financing action alerts,
most of which cannot be paid for out of our educational
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