More Bullshit Fearmongering Over Ecstasy

by Mr. Bad

2002-01-08 13:46:04

Substance Recreation

Here we go again -- the anti-drug establishment has been picking up steam on the STOP ECSTASY issue, and a new bill in the California Legislature would bring even more dumbhanded shitpain on the people who know most about drugs in this country. Back once more into the breach, maties!

Here's the deal: California Senate Bill 1103 is a new, uh, bill, which is intending to further put the screws into X users around the Golden State. Media hype over rave deaths in the last few months has driven legislators to come back to the table with the only solution they have: more and stricter punishments.

Along with making X a Schedule I drug in CA (e.g., a big, bad penalty drug, like, the drug you DON'T want to get caught with), SB 1103 will also require a MANDATORY 90-day jail sentence for being under the effects of ecstasy. That's not possession or possession with intent, folks! That's BEING UNDER THE EFFECTS. Fucked up!

We all know how well strict punishment has worked so far to prevent the grievous harm that drugs do in our country today: that is to say, it's worked terribly. Ratcheting up the penalties for simple possession of controlled substances has done jack shit to keep people alive. Driving drugs farther and farther underground -- making TALKING about drugs a crime in itself -- is killing people. Killing them with ignorance and fear.

Laws like this put people in their graves, they really do. When people are having problems on drugs, but are afraid to ask someone for information, they will do dumb things. Who's going to go to the hospital for dehydration if they know there's a 90-day jail sentence waiting for them behind the ER doors? Who's going to get their pills tested by DanceSafe? Hell, can DanceSafe and other harm reduction groups even EXIST in this kind of atmosphere? You wanna see teenagers die? Pass a law like SB 1103.

There's a great group called the Drug Reform Coordination Network that's helping to organize an anti-1103 letter drive. Take some time -- only a few minutes -- and check out their site. There's a Web form that lets you send email IN MINUTES letting your Assemblyperson and Senator know how you feel about this stupid, short-sighted, bloodthirsty law. Stop the fucking idiot war! And stop SB 1103.

Check it out yourself

iambic@pigdog.org