Thanks to Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) we're closer than ever to realizing George Orwell's vision of 1984. He's introduced a new bill which Congress is debating right now which takes the War on Drugs to unprecedented Orwellian levels of intrusion into personal privacy and could literally turn almost anyone into a criminal. The bill is H.R 1528 the "Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act", which will make it illegal not to report drug use or drug related activity to the police and provide mandatory sentences of at least 2 years for those who don't turn in relativees, friends, neighbors or people they observe doing such dangerous things as smoking a joint or if you just hear them talking about using drugs. It also makes it illegal to refuse to cooperate with a drug investigation, including making it a criminal offense not to wear a wire and go undercover if asked by law enforcement.
This is a classic example of bad law. Not only does it turn witnesses into criminals, but it also includes a provision to assign minimum sentences to all federal drug crimes. At a time when we should be reconsidering the terrible human and financial costs of the War on Drugs this legislation creates whole new classes of criminals out of innocent people. It's reminiscent of the outrageous forfeiture laws, which take away property for any association with drugs. Now they want to take away your liberty just for knowing about drug activity and not becoming an informant. It turns parents into government spies who have to turn in their own children or go to jail. In theory, under this law, if your child said she had heard friends talking about smoking a joint you could go to jail for not informing on your child and the child could be taken away from you for not informing on her friends.
Under the law, if you witness drug use or even hear someone talking about it, you have to turn them in to the police within 24 hours. If you need more time to think about it, or don't want to rat out your spouse or child or neighbor, you can be arrested and potentially sentenced to a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 10 years in jail. It doesn't matter if the offender is a friend or relative or if you need 48 hours to think about it, you have to report the person to the government within 24 hours or go to jail. In addition, you have to cooperate in every way with the resulting investigation, including wearing a wire and going undercover if needed. So in addition to turning family member against family member, the legislation could also put many Americans into dangerous situations by forcing them to go undercover to gain evidence against dangerous criminals.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - gonzo marx
wow...
well done Mr Nalle
yes folks..i said it
your humble Narrator heartily endorses this Article and earnestly pleads for all to listen up and mail your elected representatives..
hell...call them at home...stand on their porches and blare Jimi Hendrix tunes
anything within the realms of legality to get their attention and tel them that this is fascist bullshit and you won't take it
take a look at the statistics of how much we currently pay from our takes for prisons and the legal system, as well as police enforcement on this "drugwar"...at least 2 out of 3 people in proison right now are non-violent offenders nailed for possesion..
now..i personally hate chemical shit..coke, crank, smack, anything developed i na lab or processed..i think it's evil...
but scope out how many of these folks are nailed and doing time on our dime for weed or mushrooms
couldn't we find a better way to spend these billions of dollars?
i dunno..like setting the funding for Medicare/Medicaid up to where it was before this budgets cuts?
maybe to secure our southern border
or even to secure our seaports better
speak up or sit down
we are talking about EVERYONE's Rights here...
and i kinda like the 4th Amendment
Excelsior!
2 - Bennett
Hey Dave, Do you have a link to something resembling an overview of this bill? I opened the link provided and if there's a coherent description of this bill there, I couldn't find it.
Lots of corrections to what may have been original wording, but nothing (that I found) that laid out what this bill is about. It is obvious that you're correct in being against this bill, I just want to read something resembling a finished bill.
Thanks!
Bennet
3 - Thad Anderson
Thanks for the info, I hadn't heard anything about this bill.
As for an overview of the bill - here is the DEA Chief of Staff's overview/argument for it.
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/cngrtest/ct041205.html
4 - adam
Dave, thanks for bringing this incrediblity to our attention. Man, who are our representatives representing?
5 - RJ
If Dave's representation of this bill is correct (and since it's coming from Dave, I believe it is), we ALL need to act against it.
This is one issue on which the Left AND the Right can agree upon, I think.
I would NEVER "sell-out" a friend, or for that matter, even an enemy, to federal law enforcement simply because they might be sparking up a joint.
If that makes me a "criminal" then so be it.
I'll be in jail with the rest of America that still is decent and supports freedom and liberty...
6 - Eric Berlin
Well written / presented argument, Dave. If this bill is as you state, it will indeed bring a dangerous new era to bear.
I've witnessed strangers in public on the streets of New York and San Francisco smoking joints on many occasions. Will that make me a criminal?
Is this another plank in the neo-con agenda: hawkish foreign policy and nation-building overseas, Big Government on domestic issues, pro-Religious Right, pro-Big Business, anti-privacy rights, and pro-Uber Drug War?
Because that sounds pretty close to what we're seeing these days.
7 - MDE
Thanks, Dave. I knew nothing about this absurd bill.
Mark
8 - Dave Nalle
This bill is probably actually worse than my initial description. I've been reading up on it more, and there's just nothing to like about it.
Here's the detaied summary that was asked for. It's off of a goofy radio talk show site, but it summarizes the bill rather well - http://www.rense.com/general64/fdei.htm
Judges are also very strongly against the bill. Check out this site: http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2005/04/the_judges_spea.html
But let me stress this - If you write in a letter I strongly advise you NOT to stress the mandatory sentencing issue. While that's a legitimate concern, the attitude is so negative against the judiciary now that Republican Representatives, in particular, will not respond well to that angle of attack. Focus on the police state, orwellian and quasi stalinist aspects of the bill and you'll get a better response.
9 - Bennett
Great job Dave. Where did you hear of this one?
I'm sending off emails as we speak.
Bennett
10 - Dave Nalle
Word of this bill got circulated on the Republican Liberty Caucus mailing list earlier today, so I went and looked up more info on it. I'm surprised it hasn't been more widely publicized. There ought to at least be SOME news coverage of this bill, but none so far.
Dave
11 - Victor Plenty
Bad photo. Bad law. Coincidence? Almost certainly!
Thanks for bringing this bill to more people's notice, Dave. If we lived in a sane and sober polity, things like this might get more daily news coverage than Michael Jackson's trial.
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
12 - bhw
That's a fucking scary bill. What kind of sick mind thinks of ways to create criminals and coerced informants of everyday citizens?
I propose a bill that says any member of Congress who witnesses another member of Congress cheating on his/her spouse has to report what s/he witnessed to the police, the spouse, and the media within 24 hours or face a 2-year minimum sentence.
Fucking fascist dickwads.
13 - Dave Nalle
I have a small update on the bill. Apparently Sensenbrenner and others have introduced a similar bill for the last 3 years and no version has passed into law as yet. But the thing with this sort of bill is that they'll keep trying until they manage to sneak it through somehow.
Dave
14 - Victor Plenty
Once it's part of the Save Kittens From Gators Act, or some other such thing, nobody will be able to vote against it without ending their political career.
15 - bhw
Even the police would hate this law. They don't want to be bothered with fabricated crimes like these -- in most cases, they're overextended dealing with real crimes.
And since when is it illegal to talk about drug use? Now it would be a crime to witness or overhear someone doing something that iteself is not a crime? WTF?
16 - Eric Berlin
The only theoretical advantage to this law is that police could put all kinds of insane pressure on witnesses to spill info.
17 - bhw
Once it's part of the Save Kittens From Gators Act, or some other such thing, nobody will be able to vote against it without ending their political career
Good point. It will probably slide through if it's hidden in another bill.
I wish we could put a stop to that crap, but it will never end.
18 - Eric Berlin
I hope the current administration and majority party in Congress will be taken to task at the polls at some point.
But that's just me.
19 - Nancy
Don't know what you're all carping about - you especially, Dave: this is a fine Neocon Republican bill sponsored by a perennially fine Republican, and reflects true fine Neocon Republican values, legal tactics, and disregard for personal liberties. I'm surprised Bush hasn't endorsed it already; it's right up his alley.
20 - Shark
...from the same people who brought you "Get Big Government Out of Our Lives!"
Irony is dead, folks.
PS: Thanks Davey, big xxoo from yer nemesis!
PPS: Someone should look into whether Sensenbrenner has financial ties to the Prison Industry. If so, the dude is in for a windfall!
21 - Shark
Oh, and did I mention that right at THIS VERY MOMENT, I'm lighting a joint using a burning American flag?
And if this were law, you'd all be criminals. ~ahahahahahahaha!
(God Bless America!)
22 - Eric Berlin
Good points, Shark. I think we're in for another Big to go with Big Oil, Big Insurance, etc....
Big Prisons...
Isn't it fun to live in the era of Big Prisons?
23 - Dave Nalle
Nancy: "Don't know what you're all carping about - you especially, Dave: this is a fine Neocon Republican bill sponsored by a perennially fine Republican, and reflects true fine Neocon Republican values, legal tactics, and disregard for personal liberties. I'm surprised Bush hasn't endorsed it already; it's right up his alley."
If I were a Neocon Republican I guess I'd be dancing for joy, but since I'm not of their ilk, I find it most troubling. I expect this kind of rights-trampling insanity from the Democrats, but seeing nominal Republicans promulgating this garbage makes me somewhat ill.
Dave
24 - Dave Nalle
>>PPS: Someone should look into whether Sensenbrenner has financial ties to the Prison Industry. If so, the dude is in for a windfall!<<
This is actually a very good question. One of our local politicians here in Austin who's a big law and order democrat is totally in the pocket of the prison industry, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the same thing on the national level.
I find the whole idea that there should be a prison industry objectionable.
Dave
25 - Shark
Oh.
Shit.
We shoulda known this was coming; it was all foreshadowed in Jesus' words:
"Sensenbrenner, I read your book, you magnificent bastard!"
---Shark (waving fist at Heaven on battlefield of cultural war)