cannabisnews.com: House Bans Transit Drug-Reform Ads House Bans Transit Drug-Reform Ads Posted by CN Staff on December 11, 2003 at 07:51:15 PT By Josh Richman, Staff Writer Source: Oakland Tribune Local transit agencies allowing medical-marijuana and other kinds of drug-reform advertisements would be denied federal funding under a bill passed Monday by the House of Representatives. Deep within the $373 billion omnibus spending bill is a paragraph that says no money from the bill can go to any bus, train or subway agency "involved directly or indirectly in any activity that promotes the legalization or medical use of any substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act." That includes marijuana, which voters in California and nine other states have decided should be available for medical use. Drug reform advocates call the provision censorship, pure and simple. Bill Piper, associate director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, noted the same bill gives the White House $145 million to run anti-marijuana ads in 2004. "The government can't spend taxpayer money promoting one side of the drug policy debate while prohibiting taxpayers from using their own money to promote the other side," he said. "This is censorship and not the democratic way." Some Bay Area lawmakers agreed. "We don't believe it is appropriate for the federal government to use the federal purse string to stifle the free-speech interests of states and local jurisdictions with regard to this issue," said Daniel Weiss, chief of staff to Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, who didn't vote on the spending bill. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who voted against the bill, said, "With federal funding for mass transit already abysmally low, this measure makes a bad situation even worse." But Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who voted for the bill, had no problem with the provision. "I'm familiar with arguments that some illegal substances provide therapeutic relief for individuals with certain ailments conventional treatments haven't cured," he said. "But it doesn't change the fact that the substances are illegal ." Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., inserted the provision into the catch-all spending bill after growing irked at marijuana-decriminalization ads placed in the Washington, D.C., Metro transit system by Change the Climate, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit. Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)Author: Josh Richman, Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, December 11, 2003 Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. Contact: triblet angnewspapers.com Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/Change The Climatehttp://www.changetheclimate.org/Marijuana Ad On Metro Infuriates Lawmaker http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17897.shtmlMetro's Pro-Pot Ads Get Attention On Hillhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17895.shtmlPanel Asks Metro To Cut Free Public Adshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17702.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by jose melendez on December 11, 2003 at 16:38:50 PT a crooked E looks like a W Ironically, ONDCP is advertising on a news article that outs Halliburton fraud:http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20031211_1769.html Attention law enforcement [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by jose melendez on December 11, 2003 at 09:51:52 PT simple That portion of this bill restricting free speech is unconstitutional, period. test the law here [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Virgil on December 11, 2003 at 09:22:43 PT Senate put it all off until January The Pill Bill was about enough for the Senate this year, and when they saw another bloated, controversial bill like the pork-laden omnibus appropriations bill, they put it off until next year.This legislation also has the legislation that will undo overtime as we have known it for 8 million people. There is time to contact your Senator and ask him if he knows anyone in the Senate that still represents the common man. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by MikeEEEEE on December 11, 2003 at 08:26:44 PT Sadly, the middle finger is being used on freedom What they can control thru the distribution of money is clear. But what they can't control they're more afraid of. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment