The Drug Policy Alliance and other major drug policy reform groups have joined together to file a lawsuit against the U.S. government and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for censoring the free speech of drug policy reformers. The Alliance and its partners announced the suit today before a full house of local and national media at the National Press Club.

During the press conference, we unveiled a paid ad - co-sponsored by the Alliance, ACLU, Change the Climate, and Marijuana Policy Project - that was rejected by the Washington D.C. metro under the pressure of a new federal law. Our ad states facts about the government's severe and wasteful marijuana laws. The transit authority, which operates the Metro subway and bus systems in the nation's capital, rejected the ad because of a recently enacted law that cuts off all federal funding to local transit authorities that display ads criticizing the government's drug policy. The law, sponsored by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK), passed as part of a giant spending bill that also dished out $145 million in taxpayer money for pro-"War on Drugs" advertising. The White House, as part of its billion-dollar "War on Drugs" media campaign, often runs ads trumpeting its policies on public buses, trains, and subway systems, including the D.C. Metro.

"Congress keeps forgetting that there is no 'drug exception' to the Constitution," said Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance.  "But there's a silver lining to the Istook Amendment in the opportunity it presents for us to show just how foolish and extreme the drug war's proponents have become."

Already, almost 10,000 Alliance supporters faxed their Representatives and Senators condemning the Istook law, which blatantly censors our free speech. Now, our lawsuit asks the court to declare Istook's new law unconstitutional, to order the Washington Metro System to accept the plaintiffs' paid advertisement, and to prohibit the federal government from cutting off any funds to transit authorities that permit the display of advertisements criticizing the government's drug laws.

The lawsuit asserts that Metro's censorship of this political speech is a clear violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which specifically ensures that groups may freely express - and citizens must be permitted to access - all issue viewpoints.

Download the ad in pdf format.

Read the text of the lawsuit.

Read the comments of Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance.