Letter from Steve Fox
Yesterday, the Marijuana Policy Project, in conjunction with the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), scored a major victory in Congress. Due primarily to the efforts of these two organizations, Republicans in control of the U.S. House Government Reform Committee were forced to postpone the vote on the "Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2003" (H.R. 2086).
Readers like you deserve a great deal of credit for this victory. From the time we e-mailed you our alert last Friday until the day before the committee hearing -- a span of only six days -- more than 3,500 faxes were sent to Congress through our Web site. If you were one of the thousands to respond, thank you. (MPP would also like to thank organizations such as the ACLU and Working Assets for inspiring their members and supporters to take action in this grassroots lobbying effort.)
At issue was a provision that would have made the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign available to the drug czar for political purposes. Under this new provision, the drug czar would have been able to spend up to $1 billion over the next five years on ads designed to defeat ballot initiatives or candidates who support drug policy reform legislation.
This provision very likely would have quietly passed through the committee, if not for the work of MPP and DPA. Instead, the issue ended up on the cover of Roll Call, a must-read newspaper on Capitol Hill, and inspired some great editorial coverage in the Orange County Register and the Baltimore Sun.
Now, all of Congress is questioning whether the ultimate purpose of the Media Campaign is prevention or politics. Moreover, the Democrats now appear to be unified against the drug czar's use of taxpayer dollars to oppose ballot initiatives.
In no uncertain terms, this incredible turn of events in Washington is the direct result of MPP's "War on Drug Czar." Here is how we reached the current situation:
- On December 4, in the aftermath of the Nevada ballot initiative loss, MPP launched its "War on Drug Czar" by filing a complaint with the federal Office of Special Counsel, accusing the drug czar of violating the Hatch Act by using his official authority and influence to affect the outcome of an election. MPP also sent a letter to the Nevada Secretary of State, requesting an investigation into the drug czar's failure to file campaign finance reports after clearly advocating the defeat of the initiative. The drug czar's office said that our complaints were "a Cheech and Chong interpretation of the law" and "a cheap political stunt."
- On April 2, at the urging of MPP, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) filed a complaint with the General Accounting Office (GAO), requesting an investigation into a letter sent by ONDCP to prosecutors across the country. This letter encouraged prosecutors to work with their state legislators to oppose marijuana policy reform legislation. MPP believes -- and the GAO has held -- that using federal funds to inspire grassroots lobbying is illegal.
- While these complaints have yet to result in actual charges against the drug czar, they have clearly had an impact. The new bad provision in the ONDCP reauthorization bill, according to a Democratic committee staffer, was drafted in response to our actions against the drug czar. It was an attempt to immunize the drug czar, and apparently the advertising campaign, from further legal actions. A Republican committee aide was quoted in Roll Call as saying, "What we are simply trying to clarify is that the regular operation of the media campaign, when it gets into things that *some people
- want to claim and construe as political, is not political."
When MPP launched its "War on Drug Czar," even some of our supporters questioned the wisdom and the appropriateness of such a campaign. But MPP believed then, and clearly still believes, that passivity in the face of attack will lead to certain failure. The drug war was once one-sided. Those days are over.
Thank you again for assisting MPP in this battle. With your help, together we will win this war.
Steve Fox
Director of Government Relations
Marijuana Policy Project
