Action Alert: March 31, 2008

On Friday, the Senate passed a bill to make the second-time possession of ecstasy (MDMA) a felony in the state of Kansas by a vote of 40-0. This bill passed the House earlier by a vote of 117-2. The bill has been sent to the governor for her signature.

Currently, a conviction for possession of ecstasy is a misdemeanor, no matter the number of convictions. Ecstasy now joins marijuana as a second-conviction felony, meaning the person will be sentenced under SB 123 to mandatory treatment - whether they need it or not - fines and possible jail time.

Implementing this bill is expected to cost between $700,000 and $1,300,000 this year alone. Money that could be used for re-entry programs in the state. More information on HB 2545 can be found here, http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-bills/searchBillNumber.do

It is fully expected that the KBI will ask next year to add LSD and mushrooms to this list - further criminalizing drug use, while not expending any additional tax-dollars on effective drug education. (Kansas school children in the majority of districts are still subjected to the research-proven ineffective DARE program.)

In other drug policy-related legislation, Salvia divinorum or salvinorum, and Datura stramonium, commonly known as gypsum weed or jimson weed was moved to Schedule 1, thereby criminalizing the possession and sale of the drug.

Read more about these new laws and all the drug control policy-related legislation on our website, http://www.dpfks.org/KSLeg.html.

Sincerely,

Laura A. Green, Executiver Director

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