DRCNet Update, 2/4/00 -------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE -------- (To sign off this list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the line signoff drc-natl in the body of the message, or mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. To subscribe to this list, visit <http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html>.) ================ Due to a combination of staff sick time and other staff attending the NORML conference here in Washington, DC, The Week Online does not include our extensive, original coverage of drug policy and the reform movement this week. The Week Online will return in its usual form next week. However, there are a few important items that people need to know about now, so please read on: 1. SSDP on MTV 2. Please Write a Letter to Keep Peter Mcwilliams Alive and Out of Prison 3. National Call-In day on Colombia, February 15, 2000 4. State Action Alerts 5. The Cambridge Two ================ 1. SSDP on MTV MTV is airing its first "Choose or Lose" edition of MTV News, a special edition covering the New Hampshire presidential primary campaigns, as part of its effort to increasing young people's political awareness and participation. We've been told that the program will include a segment on Students for Sensible Drug Policy's New Hampshire activities, which included a protest of drug war hypocrisy outside a George Bush rally and a successful effort to pose cutting drug policy questions to the major candidates. (See our "College Convention Report" by Steve Silverman at http://www.drcnet.org/wol/122.html#cc2k for the full story.) "Choose or Lose" will air Friday, Feb. 4 (tonight) at 7:30pm, Saturday, Feb. 5 at 9:30am, Sunday, Feb. 6 at 8:30am and Monday, Feb. 7 at 7:00am and noon. ================ 2. Please Write a Letter to Keep Peter McWilliams Alive and Out of Prison We reprint the follow plea from author and friend of the movement Peter McWilliams, and ask your support for him. You can subscribe to McWilliams' e-mail distribution list by visit http://www.mcwilliams.com and clicking on "Add Your Name to My E-mail List." 2-2-2000 Please help keep me out of federal prison by writing a letter to the judge My name is Peter McWilliams. I am a cancer survivor living with AIDS. I was arrested in July 1998 on federal medical marijuana charges, even though I live in California, a state that approved medical marijuana use in 1996. In November 1999, the federal prosecutors success fully obtained an order prohibiting me from mentioning to the jury that I have AIDS, that marijuana is medicine, that the federal government supplies eight patients with medical marijuana each month, or that California has a law permitting the very act that I was accused of violating. As I never denied my medical marijuana cultivation, that left me with no defense whatsoever. To avoid an almost certain guilty verdict and a ten-year mandatory-minimum sentence, I pled guilty to a lesser charge. (The whole story is at <http://www.petertrial.com>.) My sentencing for this charge will be on March 27, 2000. The deadline for turning in letters of support is February 20, 2000. Would you please take the time to send a letter, or a fax, or even an e-mail, to the judge on my behalf? It would make all the difference in my world. The letter need not be long or eloquent. One sentence is sufficient. The judge can sentence me to 0 to 5 years. The federal sentencing guidelines place my recommended (but not mandatory) sentence in the 5-year range. It is probably unavoidable that I get a sentenced to some time -- perhaps the full five years. What I am asking the judge -- and what I am asking you to ask the judge -- is that I be able to serve my sentence under "home detention," also known as "electronic monitoring." (An electronic transmitter would b permanently fastened to my ankle and my whereabouts would be monitored 24 hours a day. I would not be able to leave my home except for medical or court appointments. As I live in Los Angeles, this will allow me to write my books, including Galileo LA.) In writing the Judge King, please observe these commonsense guidelines: 1. Please be respectful. The judge owes me, or you, nothing. You are asking for a favor. When Judge King was asked to allow me to use medical marijuana while out on bail, he said to the attorneys on both sides, in a voice trembling with compassion, "I am struggling mightily with this. Please, struggle with me." Alas, there was nothing in federal law that permitted him to allow me to break federal law, even to save my life, but I believed the sincerity of his struggle. Personally, I don't want judges rewriting law as they see fit. Judge King is a good judge upholding a bad law. My sentence, however, is at his discretion. I believe he will be fair, that he will read the letter you send, and he will be moved by your heartfelt request. I believe we owe courtesy to the King. 2. Please focus on my health (http://www.petertrial.com/undetectable.htm) and my contributions to society (through my books -- http://www.mcwilliams.com/books) as reasons why I should receive home detention or electronic monitoring (the term can be used interchangeably). The legal arguments will be made by my attorney. 3. If you know me, please say so, and state any positive character traits you may have noticed wafting by from time to time. (This letter is not written under oath, so you will not be arrested for perjury.) 4. If you have read any of my books, please say so. If they helped you, please say how. (Exception: Please do not mention "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do." See 5.) 5. Please do not give your opinion of the War on Drugs (unless you're in favor of it), how the government treated me in this case (unless you approve), your views on medical marijuana (unless you're against it), or anything else critical of the status quo. Save those remarks, however well-reasoned and accurate, for letters-to-the-editor. Such comments may be counterproductive in a letter to a federal judge. 6. If you can, please keep the letter to one page, and no longer than two. Actual letters (those things made popular in the last millennium, printed on paper, put into envelopes, and sent through the Post Office) are best. Typed is better, but handwritten is fine. Please use the most impressive letterhead to which you have legitimate access. (Your business stationery is better than your personal stationery, for example.) If you don't have stationery, you can create a letterhead on any word processor in about two minutes. Please address the letters to "The Honorable George H. King" and begin the letter "Dear Judge King,". Please mail the letters TO ME at: Peter McWilliams, 8165 Mannix Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90046. If you know you're probably not going to get around to writing a letter (and I know just how you feel -- I don't know where to find an envelope any more, much less a stamp -- please send a fax (signed, on letterhead, if possible, but if not, that's fine) to (323) 650-1541. If you think you might not get around to sending a fax, please send an e-mail. Please write at the bottom of the e-mail "You have my permission to reformat this letter, print it, and sign my name at the bottom." Your name will be signed for you, next to which will be the initials of the person signing it. Please include your complete mailing address. The e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] Finally, please circulate this request as widely as you can -- post it on bulletin boards, send it to receptive people on your e-mail list, send it out in newsletters, put it on your web page. Kindly use your creativity, but, please, no spamming. If you cannot post the entire message of this missive, the online address of this request is <http://www.petertrial.com/letters.htm>. Thank you from the bottom of my weary but very grateful heart. Peter McWilliams [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================ 3. National Call-In day on Colombia, February 15, 2000 Eyes Wide Shut: US Aid Package to Abusive Army (DRCNet forwards this important alert from organizations working on human rights in Latin America regarding US "counternarcotics" funding to Colombia.) BACKGROUND Despite President Clinton's claims that "... we're going into this with our eyes wide open," the Administration's $1.3 billion aid package to Colombia is a disastrous approach to stemming the drug trade and ending the South American nation's brutal armed conflict. This new aid, combined with funds already directed toward Colombia, will amount to $1.6 billion over the next two years. About 80% of this package is assistance to the Colombian army, widely- recognized as the most abusive military in the Western hemisphere. Even though at least 250 U.S. military personnel and advisors counsel, train, and share intelligence with Colombia's security forces everyday, the Clinton Administration aims to expand this relationship by: * helping the Colombian government push into the coca- growing regions of southern Colombia, the areas where the Colombian army is waging a counter-insurgency war; * training additional special counter-narcotics battalions in the troubled Southern region; * purchasing 30 Blackhawk and 33 Huey helicopters; * supporting radar, aircraft and airfield upgrades, and improved anti-narcotics intelligence gathering; * increasing coca crop eradication through aerial fumigation that has proven toxic and ineffective; * providing other questionable aid. Only a small portion of Clinton's aid package calls for important non-military aid, including: $145 million over the next two years to provide economic alternatives for Colombian farmers who now grow coca and poppy plants and $93 million to cover judicial reform, anti-corruption, human rights protection, rule of law, and the peace process. Your call to encourage policy makers to increase these positive alternatives and oppose military assistance may tip the balance between war and peace in Colombia. ACTION Call your US Representative and Senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to oppose military aid to Colombia and to support positive alternatives for peace in that country. TALKING POINTS * This aid package will not only pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the most abusive military in the Western Hemisphere, but it will almost certainly destabilize fragile peace negotiations and undermine support of a negotiated settlement. * To avoid getting the United States more deeply involved with Colombia's infamous armed forces, I ask you to oppose aid to the Colombian army due to human rights concerns, especially army links at a regional and local level to brutal paramilitary forces. * Instead, I urge you to support a substantial positive aid package for Colombia, including: humanitarian relief for people displaced by violence; crop substitution programs for small farmers to switch from coca to legal crops; economic assistance; programs to strengthen Colombian government investigations into human rights violations and drug trafficking; aid for civil society efforts for human rights and peace. ================ 4. State Action Alerts DRCNet is gearing up to activate our members on legislation at the state level level across the country. If you follow drug and crime policy legislation, particularly if you are affiliated with an organization involved with such issues, please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] to discuss how DRCNet and other advocacy groups might be able to support your efforts. We have current alerts in two states, Virginia and Maryland. DRCNet issue legislative alerts during the past week for the states of Virginia and Maryland. In Virginia, activists are battling Gov. Gilmore's "Operation SABRE," a draconian set of proposals that would increase drug policing and mandatory minimum sentences. If you are from Virginia, please visit our collaborative web site with the group Virginians Against Drug Violence, at <http://www.drcnet.org/states/virginia/>, to send a free e-mail or fax to your state Senator and Delegate and to find our more information about Operation SABRE and how to get involved. In Maryland, Del. Don Murphy (R-Catonsville) is introducing a bill to protect patients who use marijuana medically and their doctors who recommend it. We are collaborating with the Marijuana Policy Project on a web site to demonstrate public support for the bill. If you are from Maryland, please visit <http://www.mpp.org/Maryland/>, to send a free e-mail or fax to your state Senator and your Delegates (you may have a few of them). If you live in Maryland or Virginia but haven't acted on these alerts, please take a moment now to do so. It is crucial that medical marijuana pass in Maryland and that SABRE be defeated in Virginia. Time is of the essence! ================ 5. The Cambridge Two Last week DRCNet reported that two shelter workers in England had been sentenced for four and five year prison terms for refusing to inform on their clients involved with heroin (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/123.html#shelterworkers). The Cambridge 2 Action Committee campaign to free John Brock and Ruth Wyner can be found online at <http://www.wintercomfort-justice.org>, and Alex Masterson of the campaign can be contacted at 01223 513 033. Letters of support can be sent to the Wyner and Brock in prison as follows: Ruth Wyner EH 6524 HMP Highpoint Stradishall Near Newmarket Suffolk John Brock EM 4946 (same address) ================ COMING NEXT WEEK: US Prison Population to Pass Two Million on Feb. 15; and Important Federal Legislative Action Alerts. ----------------------------------------------------------- DRCNet needs your support! Donations can be sent to 2000 P St., NW, Suite 210, Washington, DC 20036, or made by credit card at <http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html>. 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