* Forwarded (from: NETMAIL) by L P using timEd 1.10.
* Originally from carl@commonlink.net.
* Original dated: Sun Aug 10, 09:18
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
===============================================
NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
===============================================
For release: August 6, 1997
===============================================
For additional information:
George Getz, Deputy Director of Communications
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: 76214.3676@CompuServe.com
===============================================
"Just Say No" to government-subsidized
dope-smoking experiment, say Libertarians
        WASHINGTON, DC -- Cheech and Chong, Uncle Sam wants you!
        That's right: The federal government is looking for a few good
potheads to smoke marijuana...and get paid to do it.
        But the Libertarian Party -- America's leading advocate for
drug legalization -- thinks it's a dopey idea.
        "When it comes to using taxpayer money to subsidize dope
smoking, Libertarians just say no," said Steve Dasbach, the party's
national chairman. "We don't support the government paying people to
smoke pot any more than we support the government throwing people in
jail for doing so."
        Federal health officials recently announced that they were
looking for 20 volunteers -- all "habitual marijuana smokers" -- for a
government-funded scientific study into the effects of marijuana on
motor skills.
        The study will be conducted at the Bowman Gray School of
Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, using high-grade marijuana
grown at the federal government's seven-acre "pot farm" in Oxford,
Mississippi.
        Like with all federal jobs, the benefits are great: Free,
high-quality marijuana, $50 per visit payments, immunity from criminal
prosecution, and free cab rides to and from the laboratory. In all, the
experiment will cost taxpayers more than $50,000.
        "Only the federal government could spend $50,000 to throw a pot
party," said Dasbach. "Squandering tax money this way is the ultimate
reefer madness."
        But all jokes aside, the experiment has a serious side, said
Dasbach, because while the government is paying people to smoke
marijuana, it's also spending $16 billion this year to throw hundreds
of thousands of Americans in jail for doing the exact same thing.
        "Yes, it's ridiculous that the government is paying people to
smoke dope. But it's tragic that during the four days this experiment
is conducted, 6,572 Americans will be arrested for marijuana offenses,"
said Dasbach.
        According to federal figures, someone in America is arrested
every 54 seconds for a marijuana offense -- approximately 600,000
people a year. And 80% of those people are arrested for mere
possession.
        The Justice Department is even fighting recent attempts in
California and Arizona to legalize medical marijuana for people dying
of AIDS or suffering from glaucoma or cancer.
        "Despite the government's war on compassion, there is a place
for marijuana in medicine, and a legitimate role for marijuana in
research," said Dasbach. "But such studies should be conducted by
privately funded hospitals and researchers -- not by bureaucrats
addicted to wasting other people's money."
        And that's why pork projects -- or, in this case, smoked pork
projects -- like the Bowman Gray School of Medicine study should be
shut down, said Dasbach.
        "We need to take a weed-whacker to this program," he said. "The
government has no business being a tax-subsidized drug pusher. It's
time for a new War on Drugs -- to force the federal government to stop
paying people to smoke marijuana."
        Since 1972, the Libertarian Party has called for an end to Drug
Prohibition, arguing that laws against drugs drive up crime rates,
funnel law enforcement resources away from preventing violent crime,
corrupt the judicial system, and violate the Bill of Rights.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2
iQCVAwUBM+0sp9CSe1KnQG7RAQFBsQQAuE7UNdNCdpaZgY4h6/Fqqf3kJt44BRdj
vnuYQ7kpGhMQFg/aebFXKYfH8ZjA1vfNJEm2ZRobxMUfaRoS5W/U3LdWyd3YCG2d
nfouet6Lvj/7lL9hlLd0scDH0vnVQzbyTCMp4iF3NTFm8Fk2zDD+I2+w+gVgfist
vLxsOlZRh5c=
=uec0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
The Libertarian Party                                      http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100                          voice: 202-333-0008
Washington DC 20037                                         fax: 202-333-0072
For subscription changes, please mail to  with the
word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject line -- or use the WWW form.
***********************************************************************
*  Carl E. Olsen                *  carl@commonlink.net                *
*  Post Office Box 4091         *  NORML News archived at:            *
*  Des Moines, Iowa 50333       *  http://www.calyx.com/~olsen/       *
*  (515) 262-6957 voice & fax   *  http://www.commonlink.com/~olsen/  *
***********************************************************************
--- 
---------------