The Marijuana Policy Project reports that U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., has inserted a likely unconstitutional provision into the Consolidated Appropriations Act (HR 2673) that would forbid all local public transit authorities from displaying marijuana policy reform advertisements on buses, trains, or transit stops. Failure to comply with the law could result in the loss of federal funding provided to most local transit agencies. Congress gives the White House Office of the National Drug Control Policy millions in taxpayer dollars to convey anti-drug messages and is now seeking to use more taxpayer money to prohibit alternative viewpoints — a goal that likely constitutes “viewpoint discrimination,” a violation of the free speech under the First Amendment. The MPP is asking drug-reformers to target congressional offices with a flood of anti-Istook Amendment faxes; if public pressure doesn’t result in the removal of the amendment, the MPP says it will sue the federal government to have the provision declared illegal. For more info, or to send a fax to Congress, go to www.mpp.org.
This article appears in January 23 • 2004.