Supporters of Drug Policy Reform are Making an Impact

[Lunar Loops]

Some positive news from http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/
Supporters of Drug Policy Reform are Making an Impact

Thursday, June 1, 2006

In the last few weeks, drug policy reformers across the country have contacted Congress on several different issues. They have not let up, and the efforts are yielding positive results!
A study last month showed that anti-marijuana commercials may cause young people to develop more positive attitudes toward marijuana. Thousands of people have faxed their members of Congress to urge them to stop wasting tax dollars on those ads. Congress is now deciding how much money to allocate in the budget for the ads, and the strong opposition is bolstering Drug Policy Alliance Network's lobbying efforts to advocate for cuts.
Reformers also spoke out by the thousands against a provision in the House ONDCP Reauthorization bill that would make it easier for the federal government to unleash dangerous and uncontrollable mycoherbicides in Latin America. When Senators introduced their own version of the bill, it did not contain the risky mycoherbicide scheme. This is a huge step forward. At some point the House and Senate will have to reconcile their different bills, and when they do there will be another opportunity to take action on this issue.
Thousands of people faxed Congress in support of medical marijuana as well. DPAN has received a lot of positive feedback from Congressional staffers on this campaign, which is building support for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment that Congress will most likely vote on in late June or July. Look for updates in the coming weeks on this important campaign to keep cancer and AIDS patients who use medical marijuana out of federal prison.
Change would not be possible without these consistent efforts to let members of Congress know that drug policy issues are important! If you are not yet a member of the DPA Action Network, you can join to make yourself heard on federal, state and local drug policy issues.