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Lawsuit Filed Over Marijuana Ads

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Wed Feb 18, 2004 at 05:32:42 PM EST
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From a Press Release issued by Change the Climate, the ACLU, Marijuana Policy Project and other drug reform groups:

The nation’s major drug policy reform groups today filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for censoring the speech of those critical of the government’s “War on Drugs.”

....The lawsuit responds to an amendment buried in the 2004 federal spending bill that cuts off more than $3 billion in federal funding from local transit authorities that accept advertisements critical of current marijuana laws and other drug laws. With at least $85 million at stake, the Washington Metro last week rejected an advertisement submitted by a coalition of drug policy reform groups that criticizes marijuana laws for wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and imprisoning non-violent offenders.

The rejected advertisement sponsored by the ACLU, Change the Climate, the Drug Policy Alliance, and the Marijuana Policy Project shows a group of ordinary people standing behind prison bars under the headline, “Marijuana Laws Waste Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Lock Up Non-Violent Americans.” The same groups that sought to run the advertisement filed today’s lawsuit.

Representative Ernest Istook (R-OK) added the amendment to the 2004 omnibus spending bill last year after voicing objections to marijuana law reform ads by Change the Climate, an organization of parents and business executives that educates the public on marijuana policy issues. The “Istook Amendment,” as it is known, directs Congress to deny federal funds to local transit authorities that display advertisements promoting “the legalization or medical use of any substance listed in Schedule I … of the Controlled Substances Act.”

....Although the only transit authority named in the lawsuit is the Washington Metro, the Istook Amendment applies to local transit systems across the United States – which under the 2004 budget are slated to receive approximately $3.1 billion in federal funding. For instance, San Francisco transit authorities have at least $100 million at stake, Denver has at least $80 million and New York at least $75 million, while Illinois could forfeit nearly $150,000,000 designated for three major projects if transit authorities in the state were to accept a pro-drug policy reform advertisement.

The Complaint is available here. You can download the banned ad here.

Update: Here's more from the Washington Post.

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