Hoyer vs. Murtha on drug policy
After reading that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) is supporting Steny Hoyer for Majority Leader (Frank is one of the best members of Congress as far as our issue is concerned -- he has spoken at several of our events), I decided to take a look at how their records look on drug policy.
According to Cannabis Culture magazine's "USA 2006 Stoner Voters Guide," John Murtha scored a "failure" grade, opposing medical marijuana by voting against the Hinchey amendment, supporting aerial coca eradication in Colombia (spraying of poisons) and other evils. He did vote against increasing funds for the Byrne grant program to the task forces. Hoyer, by contrast, scored an A -- the only Hoyer vote Cannabis Culture didn't like was for authorizing continuation of the drug czar's office.
According to the Drug Policy Alliance voter guide, Hoyer, while not leading any drug policy reform efforts, nevertheless scored 100% correct on issues of recent concern, compared with a 33% showing by Murtha.
If I'm not mistaken, Murtha did vote in favor of the Hinchey medical marijuana amendment two years ago, but switched to anti- last year and again this year. Perhaps then there is hope for him. But in the meanwhile, as far as drug policy reform is concerned, Hoyer has a far better record.
(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)
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It's Hoyer!
Let's hope he lives up to his record.
Don't get your hopes up
Ladies and Gentlemen:
If any of us in the medical cannabis or cannabis or anti-prohibition communitites expect any kind of progress in the drug war or in calling it off as a result of this election, we had better think again.
The Democrats brought us the drugwar, as the CSA was passed and ammended during a time when Democrats, including Barney Frank, who, like every other Congressman and Senator, was shoving everyone else out of the way of the microphone in order to propose or support the next draconian piece of legislation concerning drugs in the wake of the 1986 cocaine death of basketball player Len Bias.
In fact, all of the draconian legislation in the drugwar was passed prior to the 1994 Republican take over of Congress. No major legislation increasing drugwar or its penalties has passed in the last 12 years.
So don't expect Democrats to come riding to our rescue. Just look at and listen to Dianne Feistein's vitriolic whining and Barbara Boxer's -silence- on the issue, as well as Harry Reid's dead set opposition to any kind of softening of drug laws. So Nancy Pelosi, if she does anything at all for us as Speaker of the House, will not be able to be heard over this immutable din.
We are still not able to start singing, "amazing grace," and ,"we shall overcome," with respect to drug issues, as the Democrats simply are not the group to save us from their own pogrom.
Democrats love and depend upon the drugwar every bit as much as Republicans, and to believe otherwise is to fall into a trap set by drug warriors to get us, to opposition, to try to assign blame to one side or the other. This ties up precious time, energy and resources that should be used to fight drugwar and its henchmen, all of them, Republican and Democrat, as well as those police and DAs who continue to support prohibition because it enrichens their status, influence, budgets and political aspirations.
Eric Johnson
Nijenburg 72
1081 GG AMSTERDAM
The Netherlands
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