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.
