Congress

Dear friends,

Please see the video below for an update about a terrible drug testing amendment in Congress ... and find out how you can help us stop it!

Will you help us continue our important work in Washington by making a one time donation today or becoming a monthly donor to SSDP?

Soon, SSDP will finalizing our strategy for the year at our annual retreat. I'm excited about all of the possibilities and to tell you about our plans.  Stay tuned...

Sincerely,

Aaron Houston

Executive Director

Students for Sensible Drug Policy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                 

MARCH 23, 2010

MPP Urges Discussion on Marijuana Prohibition at Secy. Clinton’s Summit in Mexico Today

Secretary of State Expected To Ignore Only Rational Solution

CONTACT: Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations …… 202-420-1031 or [email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading a cabinet-level delegation, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, to Mexico City for a two-day conference that will focus on ways the United States and Mexico can “break the power” of drug-trafficking organizations. The talks come just one week after the execution-style killing of three people, including two American citizens and their unborn baby, linked to a U.S. Consulate in Mexico. Since Dec. 2006, there have been 18,000 killings in Mexico, with no end in sight. According to the Justice Department, Mexican cartels now operate in 230 American cities. 

         “Officials have already shown they are not serious about breaking the power of Mexican drug cartels, since they have refused to acknowledge the unrivaled role marijuana prohibition has played in lining the pockets of these murderous gangs who are now—by all indications—targeting Americans for assassination,” said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. “The only way to ‘break the power’ of these gangs is to regulate marijuana and remove it from the criminal market. According to our own government, the cartels make 70 percent of their profits from marijuana sales in the U.S.  It is unconscionable that officials continue to support a policy that funnels billions of dollars to groups who are now murdering Americans.”

         During a visit to Mexico City in March 2009, Secretary Clinton said the United States has a “co-responsibility” to confront Mexico’s growing violence because “our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.” Former leaders of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have all called for an end to prohibition in order to stem the violence. In December 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that growing numbers of U.S. and Mexican officials say privately that regulating marijuana may be the only solution to the current crisis.

         “No policy will ever extinguish the demand for marijuana,” Houston said. “Officials need to do the right thing by acknowledging prohibition’s role in this horrific carnage, and finally ending this failed policy.”   

         With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     
Date:  March 11, 2010                                       
Contact: [email protected]              
 

BREAKING NEWS:
Senate Judiciary Votes to Reform Federal Crack Cocaine Sentencing Policies
Eliminates first mandatory minimum since Nixon Administration

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Moments ago, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill that would reduce the sentencing disparity between federal crack and powder cocaine offenses. 

The bipartisan vote to approve an amended version of Senator Richard Durbin’s (D-Ill.) bill, S. 1789, acknowledged that disparate sentencing policies enacted for federal crack cocaine offenses in 1986 have had a negative impact on the nation’s criminal justice system. 

The amended bill would reduce the ratio between crack and powder cocaine from 100:1 to 20:1 and direct the U.S. Sentencing Commission to enhance penalties for aggravating factors like violence or bribery of a law enforcement officer.  Significantly, the bill also would eliminate the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack.

“This is an exciting vote, but also disappointing.  We hoped the Committee would go further in making crack penalties the same as powder.  There was no scientific basis for the 100:1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine created 24 years ago, and there is no scientific basis for today’s vote of 20:1 ,” said FAMM President Julie Stewart. “However, if this imperfect bill becomes law, it will provide some long-overdue relief to thousands of defendants sentenced each year.

With regard to the bill’s provision that would eliminate the mandatory sentence for simple possession of crack, Ms. Stewart stated, “If enacted, this legislation would repeal a mandatory minimum law for the first time since the Nixon administration.”

Under the Senate’s proposed 20:1 ratio, a conviction for 28 grams of crack cocaine will trigger a five year prison sentence and for 280 grams of crack a 10 year sentence.   The 20:1 ratio could affect an estimated 3,100 cases annually, reducing sentences by an average of about 30 months.  The bill would not, however, reduce sentences for those currently incarcerated for crack offenses.  Impact of the amendment’s other provisions has not yet been calculated. 

The House Judiciary Committee passed its own crack cocaine sentencing reform bill on July 29.  H.R. 3245, the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009, introduced by Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-V.A.), removes references to “cocaine base” from the U.S. Code, thus treating all cocaine, including crack, the same for sentencing purposes.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization supporting fair and proportionate sentencing laws that allow judicial discretion while maintaining public safety.  For more information on FAMM, visit www.famm.org or contact Monica Pratt Raffanel at [email protected]

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Dear friends:

The great news just keeps coming in.

Minutes ago, Congress voted to finally lift the 11-year ban on Washington, D.C.’s medical marijuana law.

The House voted 221-202 and the Senate voted 57-35 to approve the measure.

For the last 11 years, under a provision known as the Barr amendment, Congress has prevented Washington, D.C. from implementing the medical marijuana law passed by 69% of voters in 1998.

Repealing this amendment has been a primary focus of MPP's federal lobbying efforts for many years. In 2007, we even hired former Congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.) — the original author of the amendment — to lobby to overturn it. And our lobbyists have worked directly with members of the House and Senate and their staff since 2006 to eliminate this democracy-unfriendly law.

In fact, senior appropriators in Congress sought out MPP staff to work through specifics and to help better understand D.C.'s medical marijuana law and the complicated legal maneuverings that led to the blocking of its implementation.  

MPP would like to thank Congressmen Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), Dave Obey (D-Wis.), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) for their strong and abiding support of allowing D.C. to implement its medical marijuana law.

I also want to thank MPP's 29,000 dues-paying members, whose support helped to make this win possible. If you'd like to see more of these kinds of successes, I hope you'll donate to MPP's federal lobbying efforts. We're turning supporters' donations into results, and we can't do it without you.

Today's vote represents a victory not just for medical marijuana patients, but for all Americans, who have the right to determine their own policies without federal meddling. We'll be celebrating this victory in D.C. at our anniversary gala on January 13, and I hope you'll join us.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia?
Executive Director?
Marijuana Policy Project?
Washington, D.C.

P.S. Time is running out on our matching campaign! A major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise in 2009. Make twice the impact and donate today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                 

DECEMBER 13, 2009

Congress Ends Ban on Medical Marijuana in Washington, D.C.

Only Obama’s Signature Now Needed on Historic Measure

CONTACT: Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations ……………………… 202-420-1031

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate today passed historic legislation to end the decade long ban on implementation of the medical marijuana law Washington, D.C. voters passed in 1998.

            “This marks the first time in history that Congress has changed a marijuana law for the better,” said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.

            The “Barr amendment,” a rider attached to appropriations for the District, has forbidden D.C. from extending legal protection to qualified medical marijuana patients and has long been derided as an unconscionable intrusion by the federal government into the District's affairs. The omnibus spending bill, now approved by both chambers of Congress, removes this onerous provision, allowing the District to finally implement its voter-approved law. President Obama is expected to sign the bill shortly.

          “This is not only a huge victory for medical marijuana patients and for D.C. self-government, it marks a history-making shift on the medical marijuana issue," Houston said. “This is the first time Congress has ever given its assent to a state or local law that permits medical use of marijuana. It shows that Congress is listening to voters, who have supported protection for medical marijuana patients for well over a decade, as well as to the medical community’s growing recognition of marijuana’s medical value.

         “Coming on top of the announcement that the Department of Justice will not interfere with state medical marijuana laws, this shows that the ground has fundamentally shifted. It’s time for the federal government to take the logical next step as the American Medical Association just suggested, and reconsider marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I drug, which bars medical use.”

         Congressman Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) originally removed the ban from the D.C. appropriations bill back in July after years of working to protect patients in Washington, D.C. Congressman David Obey (D-Wis.) helped ensure that the change made it through the legislative process and into the omnibus spending bill Congress passed today.

         Medical marijuana is legal under the laws of 13 states, with bills under consideration in several others, including New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

         With more than 29,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.

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