Drug war + US imperialism = New House bill!

Not too much to snark, because snark is included in the article for us already!

Quote :

The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill yesterday that would make it a federal crime for U.S. residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the U.S., would violate the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) -- even if the planned activities are legal in the countries where they're carried out.

Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance wrote:

Under this bill, if a young couple plans a wedding in Amsterdam, and as part of the wedding, they plan to buy the bridal party some marijuana, they would be subject to prosecution. The strange thing is that the purchase of and smoking the marijuana while you're there wouldn't be illegal. But this law would make planning the wedding from the U.S. a federal crime.

Oh hoh, Bill, you're a riot!

Quote :

The Controlled Substances Act also regulates the distribution of prescription drugs, so something as simple as emailing a friend vacationing in Tijuana some suggestions on where to buy prescription medication over the counter could subject a U.S. resident to criminal prosecution.

Piper wrote:

It could even be something like advising them where to buy cold medicine overseas that they'd have to show I.D. to get here in the U.S.

Quote :

Under the Amsterdam wedding scenario, anyone who participated in the planning of the wedding with knowledge of the planned pot purchase would be guilty of conspiracy, even if their particular role was limited to buying flowers or booking the hotel.

Piper wrote:

They could have limited this law to prohibiting the planning of activities that are illegal in the countries where they take place. That would have allowed them to convict the guys in the Miami case. There was an amendment proposed to do that and it was voted down on party lines. They intentionally made sure the bill includes activities that are legal in other countries. Which means this is an attempt to apply U.S. law all over the globe.

Harvey Silverglate wrote:

I'm horrified by the pressure on Switzerland, and that's probably the libertarian in me, but at least there you have an argument that there's an American interest at stake. Here, I don't see any interest other than to a desire to impose our moral and cultural preferences on the rest of the world.

You also forget about the private interests that want more people in our jail system, too?

:

It's like we want the world to hate us more than they already do, or something.

Full article here.

I'd like to see how they'll enforce this.

Assuming this has any chance of becoming law, that is.

Howithurts wrote:

I'd like to see how they'll enforce this.

Not easily, since there is that pesky 4th Amendment and all. And last I checked, planning a trip isn't probable cause for a search warrant.

They'd need to first create a culture in which the benefits of having your parents taken away from you because you tattled on them for thoughtcrime outweigh the benefits of having parents.

Also, telescreens.

Uh. What.

Verandering wrote:

Uh. What.

Rigggghhhhht there with you, darling.

fapfapfap wrote:

They'd need to first create a culture in which the benefits of having your parents taken away from you because you tattled on them for thoughtcrime outweigh the benefits of having parents.

Also, telescreens.

I'm glad someone sees this as a future headline, plus dystopia joke. 9/10

I'm sure there are perfectly good circumstances under which this would be applicable. Like planning a drug ring from inside America that operates in another country or something. The Amsterdam example is one of the most extreme examples and probably wouldn't be prosecuted anyway...

The trouble is that you'll need cameras and spies EVERYWHERE to actually enforce this law. In a few cases it might actually be worth it but on the whole... seems a bit dumb.

fapfapfap wrote:

You also forget about the private interests that want more people in our jail system, too?

QFT. I am getting increasingly pissed off at the creative ways we are finding to put people in jail and pay private corperations to to imprision them while our government continues to cry poor whenever the lower classes need help doing things like paying for basic medical care. And yet conservatives continue to bitch about how much money we spend housing prisoners because, you know, they are criminals and do not deserve basic humane treatment or anything. Better to just kill them all, or let them kill each other.

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

I'm sure there are perfectly good circumstances under which this would be applicable. Like planning a drug ring from inside America that operates in another country or something. The Amsterdam example is one of the most extreme examples and probably wouldn't be prosecuted anyway...

The trouble is that you'll need cameras and spies EVERYWHERE to actually enforce this law. In a few cases it might actually be worth it but on the whole... seems a bit dumb.

Don't give them any ideas.

They're going to have to arrest a ton of young people and especially college students. I went to school in Michigan and it was nothing to go to Windsor for the weekend on your eighteenth birthday (or any weekend before you turned 21). I imagine it's similar in all of the border states.

Soylent Green wrote:

They're going to have to arrest a ton of young people and especially college students. I went to school in Michigan and it was nothing to go to Windsor for the weekend on your eighteenth birthday (or any weekend before you turned 21). I imagine it's similar in all of the border states.

Plenty of Californians go to Mexico to drink, since the legal drinking age there is 18 (and it isn't always enforced; of course, the legal drinking age isn't always enforced in the U.S., either).

Lady Anne wrote:

Soylent Green wrote:

They're going to have to arrest a ton of young people and especially college students. I went to school in Michigan and it was nothing to go to Windsor for the weekend on your eighteenth birthday (or any weekend before you turned 21). I imagine it's similar in all of the border states.

Plenty of Californians go to Mexico to drink, since the legal drinking age there was 18 (and it isn't always enforced; of course, the legal drinking age isn't always enforced in the U.S., either).

I know of at least one base near the US-Mexico border where the local drinking age for service members was lowered to 18 simply because it's better to do that then arrest half your junior airmen every weekend. Same reason the base drinking age was 18 at Lakenheath.

21 at Osan for some reason, though. And they wonder why they have so many ARIs...