President-elect Obama continues to name members of his new cabinet. Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle from South Dakota has been named to head up Health & Human Services. As a Senator in 2003, Daschle was the sponsor of S. 22, a sneaky way to get the unpopular “RAVE Act” through Congress after now-Vice President-elect Biden was unsuccessful in passing it the year before:
Dave Kopel & Glenn Reynolds on RAVE Act on National Review Online
Last year, there was a big push in Congress to enact the so-called “RAVE Act,” sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (D., Tex.) as H.R. 5519 and in the Senate by Joseph Biden (D., Del.). Both lead sponsors were very forthright; the very title of the bill announced its intention to go after “raves” — dance parties popular with Generations X and Y.But the “RAVE Act” aroused enormous opposition, so much so that the Senate Judiciary chairman withdrew his co-sponsorship of the bill.
This year, the same act is back; but this time it’s concealed deep within an immense, omnibus bill sponsored by Tom Daschle — the so-called “Justice Enhancement and Domestic Security Act of 2003″ (S. 22). … And the “RAVE Act” reappears too — only this time, the word “RAVE” never appears in a title. Rather, the “RAVE Act” language is found in sections 5131-36, under the misleading title “Crack House Statute Amendments.”
The Daschle bill extends the federal “crackhouse law” — which makes it illegal to maintain a building for purposes of drug consumption — to cover musical performances and other events of a temporary nature, and to make liable even those who make their premises available at no charge. The idea is to make the promoters of musical events liable for drug consumption at those events — even when the consumption is entirely incidental, and has nothing to do with any action by the promoters. The legislation is, in effect, an admission of failure by the Drug Enforcement Agency: Unable to control drug use, it’s looking to force concert promoters and theaters to do it, on pain of imprisonment.
As amended by Daschle, …this language is broad enough to encompass not only rave promoters and disc jockeys, but also bar owners, hotel or motel owners, concert promoters, tour bus or cruise ship operators — and even home owners. Literally read, the statute would even apply to a homeowner whose teenagers occasionally smoked marijuana on the property.
Fortunately Daschle’s stealth RAVE Act died in committee. Unfortunately, President-Elect Obama’s initial choices for the law enforcement, government, and health posts that will most impact cannabis in this country include Vice President Joe “Mandatory Minimums” Biden, Chief of Staff Rahm “Silence Doctors on MedMJ” Emanuel, Attorney General Eric “5-years for pot” Holder, Drug Czar Jim “Raid the MedMJ States” Ramstad, and now Secretary of Health & Human Services Tom “Stealth RAVE Act” Daschle. If only they could get Sgt. Stedanko for head of the DEA!
How do I add this to my RSS reader? Sorry I’m a newbie :(
i think the most important thing is that ALL of us keep pushing congress or our respective representative bodies to reform the marijuana laws. For example it would be more logical to get the states to reform thier laws. Many people dont realize this but the states are free to govern how they choose, as long as it goes with the will of the people. So what im trying to say is pass marijuana reform laws or medical marijuana laws in your respective states that way we call ALL put pressure on the man (ha) and finally end all of the injustice
The first thing these folks will have to change is themselves on the issue of hemp, the voted Will of the People. Anything else is more of the same where the government’s war on the people persists while the nation’s #1 cash crop continues to be untaxed while they whine about how they don’t have enough money. They claim to be people of wisdom and wisdom changes everything.
Hemp helps with health care as an effective 5,000 year old medicine (www.hempmuseum.org). Hemp scrubs the air of excess CO2 as it grows and burns clean as both biofuel and biomass (HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION by Richard M. Davis). Only fools would continue to make nature illegal and pretend not to know hemp heals. They do not appear to be fools. Contact http://www.change.gov and voice your support for hemp.
I Think if this law gets passed the pot community could use this to get bars shutdown because alchol is a drug and they do tend to have music playing. This might shine some light on the whole prohibition ting