|
DRCNet
Temporarily
Suspending
Our
Web-Based
Write-to-Congress
Service
Due
to
Funding
Shortfalls
--
Your
Help
Can
Bring
It
Back
--
Keep
Contacting
Congress
in
the
Meantime
12/19/03
Due to funding shortfalls,
DRCNet has been forced to suspend our web-based write-to Congress program.
We will bring it back to life as soon as you and other DRCNet supporters
make it possible through your financial contributions. Please visit
https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate/
and make the most generous donation that you can!
Most importantly, don't let
this temporary setback at DRCNet prevent you from lobbying Congress.
We intend to continue to issue legislative action alerts in the meantime,
and you can act on them by calling your US Representative and your two
Senators on the phone; go through the Congressional Switchboard at (202)
224-3121 or visit http://www.house.gov
and http://www.senate.gov to look up
their names and phone and fax numbers or to contact them via e-mail or
web form. The information contained on the alert pages of our legislative
web sites will provide you with sufficient information to take such action.
There are current action alerts posted at:
https://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/
https://stopthedrugwar.org/justice/
https://stopthedrugwar.org/stopthehelicopters/
http://www.raiseyourvoice.com
It's important that we get the
web-based service online as soon as possible, for a few reasons:
-
E-mails to Congress are more
important and effective now than they were in the past, since the 2001
anthrax attacks and the resulting slowness and unreliability of snail-mail
to Capitol Hill;
-
The ease of going to a web site,
reviewing and editing a prewritten letter, typing in your address and sending
it at the click of a mouse, is highly effective for increasing our participation
rates and resulting impact on Congress;
-
The action alert web sites are
a highly effective means for recruiting new people onto our e-mail lists,
growing the movement and doing so in the process of carrying out needed
grassroots activism -- and ultimately increasing our potential donor base
and ability to maintain and enhance these services;
-
The system lets us look up subsets
of our list based on geography (e.g. state, congressional district, city,
state legislative district, county), and target action alerts to people
who live in the key areas whose legislators or officials need to be lobbied
especially vigorously due to their membership on committees responsible
for active legislation or other reasons; and
-
The personalization features
the online system provides us allow us to send each of you individualized
e-mails containing the name and phone number of your legislators, making
it easier for you to take it to the next level of lobbying by phone, thereby
increasing the number of phone calls to Congress that we can generate,
a crucial show of passion for the issue that members of Congress need to
see. For example, if you've used our write-to-Congress web forms
in the last 2 3/4 years, you've probably received a few e-mails from us
recently with text like the following:
"If you haven't moved since we last communicated (zip code ___ in ___,
__, than your US Representative is Rep. ___. Please call Rep. ___
at ____ and ask him to vote YES on ___ when it comes to a vote on the House
floor..."
So while we can continue to
send you legislative alerts without the online lobbying system, we can't
make use of any of those extremely powerful features described in the paragraphs
above. In order to resume our use of the service, we need to pay
off our balance with the company that provides it as well as raise additional
funds to ensure we can continue to afford it after that. All in all,
we need to raise at least $10,000 in non-deductible donations to our 501(c)(4)
lobbying organization, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, to reactivate
the service and be fiscally responsible in continuing to subscribe to it.
While this sounds like a lot of money, it's only slightly more than members
like you gave us during our most successful previous fundraising appeal.
So please take a few moments
to send DRCNet a few dollars today and make it happen! Please visit
https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate/
to make a contribution by credit card or PayPal or to print out a form
to send in with your check -- or just send your donation by mail to: DRCNet,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. Donations to the Drug Reform
Coordination Network to support our lobbying work (like the action alert
program) are not tax-deductible. Tax-deductible contributions to
support our educational work can be made to the DRCNet Foundation, same
address. We can also accept donations of stock: Our broker
is Ameritrade, phone: (800) 669-3900, account number: 772973012, DTC number:
0188, make sure to contact us directly to let us know that the stocks are
there and whether they are meant for the Drug Reform Coordination Network
or the DRCNet Foundation.
-- END --
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Issue #316, 12/19/03
Editorial: Why Prohibition Scares Me |
Victory! Federal Appeals Court Rules Feds Can't Persecute Medical Marijuana Patients |
Supreme Court Okays Arrest of All Occupants in Cars Where Unclaimed Drugs Are Found |
Flex Your Rights in News -- New and Improved BUSTED Video Offer Available from DRCNet Too |
Afghanistan: Drug War Yields to Terror War as Rumsfeld Glad-Hands Drug Dealing Warlords |
Newsbrief: Georgia Deputy Kills Innocent Man in Highway Drug Stop |
Newsbrief: Campaign Watch -- Kucinich Says Legalize It |
Newsbrief: Morocco Cannabis Production Booming, UN Drug Office Reports |
Newsbrief: Canadian Supreme Court to Rule Next Week on Key Marijuana Cases |
Newsbrief: With National Parks Threatened, Colombia Fumigation Petition Drive Underway |
Newsbrief: Nigerian Reefer Madness Breaks Out as Officials Blame Marijuana for Social Strife |
Newsbrief: UN Drug Office Predicts Humanitarian Crisis as Myanmar Opium Ban Goes Into Effect |
Announcement: New Hemp Nutrition Bar Supports Advocacy |
DRCNet Temporarily Suspending Our Web-Based Write-to-Congress Service Due to Funding Shortfalls -- Your Help Can Bring It Back -- Keep Contacting Congress in the Meantime |
Perry Fund Accepting Applications for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 School Years, Providing Scholarships for Students Losing Aid Because of Drug Convictions |
The Reformer's Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
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redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
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materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
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