As noted in our action alert released yesterday (8/2), Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) has introduced S. 1208, the so-called "Ecstasy Prevention Act of 2001," a draconian new bill that would throw more fuel on the government's anti-Ecstasy hysteria.
If you haven't visited our web site opposing S. 1208 -- http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ecstasywar/ -- please do so now and make sure your two US Senators and your US Representative know your opinion.
Also note that the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics of the Alchemind Society, whose report we drew on in preparing our alert, has released an update and expansion to it that is available on their web site now. You can click through from the sidebar on our action alert site, or just point your browser to http://www.alchemind.org/DLL/sb1208_index.htm -- make sure to click through to the full "summary and analysis of the Act" for extensive new discussion. One of the new pieces of information is that S. 1208 now has a companion bill, H.R. 2582.
Please visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ecstasywar/
to register your disapproval of this legislation with Congress. Even
if Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, were the dire threat that some claim it
to be, this bill would still be the wrong way to go and would do great
harm to our nation's youth. Yet the government's reaction to Ecstasy
use is wildly disproportionate to the actual evidence. For example,
As noted in our action alert released yesterday
(8/2), Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) has introduced S. 1208, the so-called "Ecstasy
Prevention Act of 2001," a draconian new bill that would throw more fuel
on the government's anti-Ecstasy hysteria.
If you haven't visited our web site opposing
S. 1208 -- http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ecstasywar/
-- please do so now and make sure your two US Senators and your US Representative
know your opinion.
Also note that the Center for Cognitive
Liberty and Ethics of the Alchemind Society, whose report we drew on in
preparing our alert, has released an update and expansion to it that is
available on their web site now. You can click through from the sidebar
on our action alert site, or just point your browser to http://www.alchemind.org/DLL/sb1208_index.htm
-- make sure to click through to the full "summary and analysis of the
Act" for extensive new discussion. One of the new pieces of information
is that S. 1208 now has a companion bill, H.R. 2582.
Please visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ecstasywar/
to register your disapproval of this legislation with Congress. Even
if Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, were the dire threat that some claim it
to be, this bill would still be the wrong way to go and would do great
harm to our nation's youth. Yet the government's reaction to Ecstasy
use is wildly disproportionate to the actual evidence. For example,
the Drug Abuse Warning Network found only 27 known cases of Ecstasy-related
fatalities during the five-year period spanning 1994-1998.
While these 27 deaths are tragedies, the
number is dwarfed by the millions who died from tobacco during that time,
the hundreds of thousands from alcohol, even the tens of thousands from
aspirin! Even in face of rising use of the drug, the numbers are
still miniscule. Perhaps worst of all, this law will have the effect
of stifling the provision of much-needed "harm reduction" information and
resources to the very communities of young people we say we want to protect
-- the kind of help that could have saved those 27 young people.
Again, visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ecstasywar/
to contact Congress in opposition to this bill. Our web site will
send an e-mail or fax to your two Senators, your US Representative and
the President; you may use our prewritten version, or better yet, modify
it or write your own. When you're done, we hope you'll also call
your Senators, using the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and
forward this alert to your friends or use the tell-a-friend form provided
by our site. (Visit http://thomas.loc.gov
for legislative updates on this and other legislation.)
Last but not least, visit DanceSafe at
http://www.dancesafe.org
to see what a rational approach to MDMA and other "club drugs" looks like.
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