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WAR ON DRUGS
Pot shot
BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

The anti-pot crusaders are at it again. This time, they’re not taking aim at petty pot smokers or medical-marijuana patients. Rather, they’ve set their sights on those who simply criticize the status quo: drug-law reformers.

A little-known provision in a pending omnibus federal-spending bill would ban private advertising on buses, subways, and trains that calls for the reform of our country’s marijuana laws. The language would bar local and state transportation authorities that receive federal grants from allowing private advertising "that promotes the legalization or medical use of any substance listed in schedule 1 ... of the Controlled Substances Act" — in other words, marijuana. If enacted, it would effectively silence drug-law-reform groups, many of which have turned to billboard and poster ads to push for medical marijuana and similar initiatives.

The provision materialized last week after a Republican lawmaker from Oklahoma spotted an ad funded by Change the Climate, a drug-law-reform group based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The ad depicted a sunny-blond, tanned man romancing a sunny-blond, tanned woman at a tropical resort. Under the picture appeared the words, enjoy better sex! legalize and tax marijuana.

The ad so offended Representative Ernest Istook, who noticed it while riding the subway in Washington, DC, that he subsequently inserted the anti-marijuana-ad provision into the omnibus spending bill. Apparently, says Joe White, who heads Change the Climate, the ad "sent the right wing crazy off the deep end." Conservatives, he says, "are so interested in sex that it wasn’t surprising they jumped all over our ad. But we’re wondering why they’re so afraid to have a debate about marijuana laws in this country?"

This, of course, is why the ads exist in the first place. To date, Change the Climate has funded seven ad campaigns on the DC Metro, which offers a reduced rate for nonprofit organizations. It’s also bought billboards in Nevada and California. Currently, you can see the group’s billboards dotting Bay State highways and touting the "$138 million to save local services" that could be spared and funneled toward social services if marijuana were legalized.

The anti-marijuana-ad provision raises obvious First Amendment concerns. Three years ago, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority refused to run the same ad Istook found so offensive, triggering a protracted lawsuit. Last August, Change the Climate lost; it’s now working on an appeal. Despite the ruling, White believes the provision "is completely unconstitutional," since courts have generally ruled that public-transportation authorities cannot discriminate against any political viewpoint.

Federal-spending bills are notoriously difficult to amend; indeed, the only way to stop the provision from becoming law is for Congress to vote against the entire omnibus bill — a "super large" piece of legislation funding dozens of federal agencies. But drug-law-reform advocates aren’t giving up yet. Though the US House of Representatives passed the bill on December 8, 176 members voted against it. And momentum against it is mounting in the Senate, which will vote on the bill in January. So, drug-law-reform advocates see a slim opportunity to shoot down the anti-marijuana-ad provision. "People calling legislators always makes an impression," says Fatema Gunja, of the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts.


Issue Date: December 12 - 18, 2003
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