Source: U.S. Newswire
Pubdate: July 17, 1997
AHGO Launches Radio
Campaign Opposing Initiative to
Legalize Marijuana in
Washington, D.C.
U.S. Newswire : BEDMINSTER, N.J., July 16
/U.S. Newswire/ Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity
(AHGO), a national issues advocacy organization, today
announced a radio campaign in Washington, D.C., to mobilize
public opinion against Initiative Measure Number 57. The
measure, which would legalize the "possession, use, cultivation
and distribution" of marijuana in the District of Columbia, needs
16,763 valid signatures by Dec. 8, 1997, to qualify.
Steve Forbes, honorary chairman, called on President Clinton,
D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to take a bold lead against the
initiative, which would make marijuana available even to minors
under the age of 18, without a doctor's prescription.
"Where's the moral outrage? Everyone in Washington seems
obsessed with Joe Camel. But D.C. children are being targeted by
twisted drug predators and we hear nothing but silence," said
Forbes. "This initiative has been in process since April and
almost no one knows anything about it. That's why AHGO is
launching this radio campaign, issuing a memo to congressional
leaders and working with local leaders and antidrug coalitions to
mobilize public opinion against this very serious threat."
Following is the script and a fact sheet about Measure 57.
Radio 0028 Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity Time :60
Seconds Title: "Legalization"
Forbes: Drug use among America's young children is on the rise.
But Washington, D.C. voters will be asked to legalize the use of
marijuana under the guise of better health care.
This is Steve Forbes. Initiative 57 would legalize the possession,
use and distribution of marijuana and you don't even need a
prescription.
The federal government just got rid of Joe Camel, but radical drug
legalization forces want to increase drug use.
National and state medical societies have soundly denounced this
voter fraud, marijuana brings no relief not already matched by
legal prescription drugs.
It's time President Clinton and Congress send a message that our
nation's capital won't inhale.
For more information, call Americans for Hope, Growth and
Opportunity at 18007601610. That's 18007601610.
Paid for by Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity, Steve
Forbes honorary chairman.
Fact Sheet: D.C. Initiative Measure Number 57
The short title of Measure 57 is: "Legalization of Marijuana
Treatment Initiative of 1997." It was filed with the D.C. Board of
Elections on April 2, 1997. The deadline to file opposition was
June 9, 1997. No opposition was filed. December 8, 1997, is the
deadline for gathering 16,763 valid D.C. signatures.
The measure would legalize the "possession, use, cultivation and
distribution of marijuana" for "medical purposes."
The "medical purposes" language is vague and the word
"prescription" is never used in the legislative language. Instead,
only a doctor's "recommendation" is needed, but the
"recommendation" can be either "written or oral."
The measure requires the D.C. commissioner of public health to
actually establish a plan for the city government to distribute
marijuana.
One section of the measure actually explains how minors
children under the age of 18 can use marijuana.
The measure allows D.C. residents to set up nonprofit
corporations for the purpose of "cultivating, purchasing and
distributing marijuana" for the vague purposes of "medical use."
The measure allows medical patients to designate a "parent,
sibling, spouse, child or other close relative, domestic partner,
case manager/worker or best friend" to help grow, use or buy
marijuana by designating them as "primary caregiver." This
designation will protect these people from criminal prosecution,
and the patient can designate up to four people as primary
caregivers. The measure even defines the term "best friend"
perhaps the first legislative description of a "best friend" in the
nation.
The measure requires the mayor of the District of Columbia, upon
certification of the measure's successful passage into law, to
"deliver a copy of this act to the president and the Congress to
express the sense of the people of the District of Columbia that
the federal government must develop a system to distribute
marijuana to patients who need it for medical purposes."
July 16, 1997
TO: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND CONSERVATIVE
LEADERS FROM: STEVE FORBES, HONORARY CHAIRMAN
SUBJECT: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE WAR ON DRUGS?
The war on drugs in the U.S. is being lost by a Washington
leadership that refuses to lead.
Case in point: signatures are currently being gathered by radical
groups in our nation's capital for a ballot initiative Measure
Number 57 that would legalize the "possession, use, cultivation
and distribution of marijuana."
Yet President Bill Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore, who live in
the city, are silent on the subject. Congressional leaders, who
have jurisdiction over the federal city, are largely also silent.
Why the silence? Why the inaction? Drug use is already rampant
and deadly in the city that is home to the White House, Drug
Czar's Office, Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and an array of other law enforcement agencies.
And nationally drug use is exploding among American teenagers.
Marijuana use alone has tripled among teens in the last five years.
The age at which kids are first trying illegal drugs is steadily
declining. The median age for first time drug use is now just 15
years old.
Antidrug leadership works. The Reagan and Bush
administrations waged a relentless and effective war on drug
supply and drug use. Schools, churches, sports figures and movie
and music stars were mobilized in the cultural fight against drugs.
As a result, drug use plummeted in the late 1980s, and attitudes
about drug use changed dramatically.
Today there is a complete vacuum on the antidrug front. No one
is taking the drug explosion seriously. So drug use is again on the
rise.
Worse, there is a new, wellfinanced and very serious effort
underway to legalize drugs in this country. We saw this last year
in ballot initiatives in California and Arizona, where
wellfinanced legalization forces employed massive, misleading
propaganda to achieve success "reducing pain" while masking
their real intent: making America safe for Columbianstyle drug
cartels. Now Washington, D.C., and Washington state are the targets
of wellfinanced efforts to pass ballot initiatives legalizing
drugs.
The proponents of drug legalization claim they do so in the name
of "compassion, " to aid those who are suffering from intense
pain. But there are already safe, effective, legal drugs available
to ease the suffering of those who are sick and dying. That's why
organizations that oppose drug legalization include: the American
Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the National
Sclerosis Association, the American Glaucoma Association, the
American Academy of Ophthalmology, the National Eye Institute
and the National Cancer Institute.
It is time for a new, aggressive, morally serious national
antidrug strategy.
We need a president that is morally outraged by the explosion of
drug use among our children and will make the case against drugs
aggressively and consistently and back it up with a real
strategy to attack supply as well as demand.
We need real congressional oversight of the largely invisible drug
czar and his operation.
We need to reengage our cultural institutions to teach children
that drugs are wrong, dangerous and illegal.
We must directly challenge the moral callousness of the drug
legalization effort.
But to begin, we must draw a line in the sand against drug
legalization starting in the nation's capital.
To accomplish this, we must mobilize the ClintonGore
administration and the Republicancontrolled Congress. We must
mobilize city leaders, pastors and D.C. citizens. And we must
engage the local and national media to report the horrifying
effects illegal drugs are already having on the people of D.C.
American families are outraged by the explosion of drug use
among our young people and by the inaction of our leaders in
Washington. It is not good enough to declare a "war on drugs."
It's time to win.
[Copyright 1997, Comtex]