The Senate narrowly approved an amendment to the tobacco-control bill on Tuesday that seeks to spend $16 billion targeting and enhancing penalties against marijuana users. Amendment 2451, spearheaded by Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), funds state efforts to “establish state registration programs” for convicted marijuana sellers, drug test teenage driver’s license applicants, drug test junior high and high school students, allow law enforcement to check motorists for the presence of marijuana metabolites, and encourage small businesses to adopt drug-free workplace programs. The measure also amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 by prohibiting anyone convicted of a felony drug offense from receiving any student loan, grant, or work assistance.
“These Republican-backed anti-drug measures treat otherwise law abiding marijuana smokers as if they were enemies of the state,” said NORML Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. “Tens of thousands of hard-working, productive citizens — including many of the best and brightest college students — would be unfairly penalized by these draconian proposals.”
Stroup called the provision to register convicted marijuana sellers especially disturbing. The amendment states that anyone “who is convicted of a criminal offense involving drug trafficking [must] register a current address with a designated state law enforcement agency for up to ten years following” the date of conviction or release from prison. The provision further says that the information collected under the registration program “may be disclosed for any purpose permitted under the laws of the state.” Presently, several states have enacted similar registration laws for those individuals found guilty of committing sex offenses against children.
Attorney Tanya Kangas, Director of Litigation for The NORML Foundation, said that many of the drug testing initiatives proposed by the amendment appear unworkable and may be unconstitutional. “Implementing federal legislation to give law enforcement the authority to screen for drug metabolites will violate privacy and search protections,” she said. “Blood tests are excessively invasive; urine tests do not indicate impairment and cannot be collected consistent with constitutional standards for traffic stop searches. We can restrict people from driving while impaired without violating the Constitutional as this amendment proposes.”
The proposal mandates law enforcement to suspend the license of any driver who tests positive for drug metabolites. Marijuana metabolites may be present in urine for periods of 30 to 40 days after last use of the drug.
Kangas also questioned the fairness of federally-encouraged suspicionless drug testing in schools and the workplace. Presently, the Supreme Court maintains that drug testing by the state without individualized suspicion is legal only if there exists “special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement.”
The provision denying federal student loan assistance to convicted marijuana felons is similar to a House amendment approved earlier this year. NORML National Campus Coordinator Aaron Wilson said that both pieces of legislation unfairly punish marijuana users. “It is outrageous that Congress would pass this law denying financial aid to students for non-violent drug offenses, while a felony conviction for a serious violent crime brings no such penalty,” he said. “What kind of message is Congress sending?”
Senators voted 52-46 for the anti-drug amendment, with all but two Republicans supporting it and all Democrats opposed. The tobacco measure still needs approval from the Senate and the House.
“Attaching this amendment to the tobacco-control bill is nothing more than a sneak attack by Republicans to escalate the war on marijuana smokers,” Stroup said.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.
