Some Good News from Kansas

Some good news, from our friends at the Drug Policy Forum of Kansas: March 19, 2007 The Kansas House Judiciary Committee today killed SB 14, the drug offender registry bill. This legislation would have required persons convicted of sale of illegal drugs with 1000 yards of a school, or of manufacturing methamphetamine, to register on the KBI offender web site every 6 months for the rest of their life. The bill passed the KS Senate 39-0 in January. Testifying in opposition to SB 14 was DPFKS executive director Laura Green, along with KS Families Against Mandatory Minimums director Peter Ninemire, Jennifer Roth of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the parents of a currently incarcerated meth offender. Read the testimony on our website. Testifying for the bill was KBI lobbyist Kyle Smith. Kudos to the 19 committee member for recognizing this bill as another waste of taxpayer money in the failed war on drugs! In February, DPFKS contacted the 105 sheriff departments in KS to alert them to the cost to their department to administer this law. In his testimony to the committee on March 14, KBI lobbyist Smith revealed that the sheriffs were 'grumbling' about the cost to implement the bill. He suggested the committee remove the drug sales offenders and leave the bill with only persons convicted of manufacture of a controlled substance as the registrants. This was a bill in search of a problem. There is no evidence that someone who goes to prison for manufacturing meth will start another lab and be a danger to society. There has never been one case in Kansas where this has occurred. Unfortunately, this bill is part of a national get-tough-on-crime agenda. Tennessee, Minnesota, and Illinois have passed similar bills. Montana, Georgia, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington State and West Virginia are considering similar legislation.