-
- H.R.
2987
Hastings says
critics misinterpret drug bill's intent, effect on
liberty
OLYMPIA (Wednesday 5-24-00)---Fourth District
Congressman Doc
Hastings insists a new drug-war bill
under consideration in the U.S. House won't infringe
on citizens' First and Fourth Amendment rights under
the Constitution.
Civil Libertarians disagree, and offer scathing
criticism for the federal government as it expands its
25-year old drug war via such bills as
S 486 and
H.R. 2987.
These are the Senate and House versions of the
"Methamphetamine
Anti-Proliferation Act of
1999,"
respectively. The Senate version passed
unanimously last November. The House is poised to pass
its own.
Bill critics say such a law would allow fed cops
secretly to break into people's homes, then
search for "illicit" contents. That 's a blatant
violation of the Fourth Amendment.
In addition, the bill would make it a crime with
stiff penalties to write or speak about the
availability of drugs or paraphernalia, or teach
persons how to grow or make "controlled substances."
Making free speech a crime is a blatant violation of
the First Amendment.
Hastings said "the increasing number of
methamphetamine lab busts not only in Washington State
but nationwide have spurred a number of bills in
Congress to combat methamphetamine production."
Hastings said H.R. 2987 "would increase
penalties for methamphetamine lab operators, provide
more resources for combating methamphetamine
production, trafficking, and abuse, and provide for
law enforcement to send information about
methamphetamine lab busts to a lab in El Paso, Texas
where all methamphetamine data will be compiled."
That may be all well and good, but Civil
Libertarians don't want the Bill of Rights to become a
victim of the federal drug war. The Libertarian Party
said recently that H.R. 2789 is a perfect example of
this effect.
Libertarians say the bill would create several
new "communication crimes," including:
* Illegal linking (three
years in prison): It would be illegal
for any "communications facility to post, publicize,
transmit, publish, link to, broadcast or otherwise
advertise" -- or even provide "indirect advertising
for" -- Internet sites that sell drug
paraphernalia.
* Illegal teaching
(10 years in prison). It would be
illegal to tell someone how to produce an illegal
drug, such as growing marijuana.
A cursory reading of H.R. 2987's plain-English
language on the Operation
Vote Smart website confirms
Libertarian fears of the bill's would-be effects.
Hastings, however, says Libertarians "misinterpret "
the bill.
"Although the bill's language expands current
search and seizure laws, it does not allow "secret
searches, nor does it restrict free speech in any way,
shape, or form," Hastings says.
Fourth District Civil Libertarians had been
counting on Hastings'
help to deep-six the measure's most egregious
sections.
Libertarians condemned both the Senate's and
House's version of the bill as one more wicked,
Constitution-denying burden on the American people
perpetrated by an illicit and failing drug war.
Hastings says House committees are going over
the House version of the bill to make certain it won't
allow infringements on privacy, ala the Fourth
Amendment.
"While H.R. 2987 is currently being considered
by the Subcommittee on
Crime of the
House Judiciary
Committee and the
Subcommittee on Health
and Environment of the
House Commerce
Committee, Congressman
Chris
Cannon has delayed mark-up of the bill
until legal experts carefully examine the full
ramifications of the bill's language to ensure that
the legislation contains no infringement on privacy,"
Hastings wrote to the Yakima Valley News.
Hastings doesn't refer, however, to the bill's
apparent lambasting of the First Amendment and free
speech, as noted by Libertarians and obvious to anyone
reading the bill.
"Please rest assured that I will keep your views
in mind as I work with my colleagues to create common
sense solutions to the problem of methamphetamine
production," Hastings wrote.
Libertarian Party Chief
Steve
Dasbach says "The bill is a dangerous
expansion of government power because, although
politicians now have the power to outlaw certain
activities, the First Amendment prohibits them from
outlawing speech about those illegal activities."
Said Dasbach, "Politicians have already made
possession of drugs a crime -- now they want to make
possession of press releases, books, newspapers,
magazines, and websites about drugs a crime," he said.
"If this bill passes, the War on Drugs will have
escalated into a full fledged
War on the First
Amendment."
