We're in the fight of our lives in Washington, DC. High-ranking members of Congress want to take the war on drugs to a whole new level.

They want to increase penalties for every drug offense. They want a mandatory 2-year prison term for anyone who knows someone is selling marijuana on a college campus and fails to report it to the police within 24 hours. They want a mandatory 5-year prison term for someone at a party who passes a marijuana joint to someone who has been enrolled in drug treatment at some point in their life. They want to expand the federal "three strikes and you're out" law to include new offenses, including mandating life imprisonment (with no possibility of parole) for anyone convicted a third time under the RAVE Act.

Take Action Here

These and other horrible provisions are inside Congressman Sensenbrenner's H.R. 1528 entitled "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005". You helped us derail this bill last year, but now it's back - and it's longer and more draconian.

I'm not going to lie, we're up against the most powerful forces in the federal government. We hope you will continue to stand with us in this massive showdown. Some of you have already taken action in key congressional districts and it's had an impact. Once on the fast track, the bill has stalled in committee. Drug war extremists are regrouping, however, and it's only a matter of time before they strike back. We need to keep the heat on members of Congress to kill this bill.

In short, we're up against Goliath. But, we have tens of thousands of "David's" like you on our side. If we all work together we can put up one hell of a fight and hopefully win.

This battle - one of our most important this year - is only the beginning. In four other areas the drug policy reform movement has launched offensives to target the drug war establishment at its weak points. We're serious about taking down Goliath.

There are three things you can do today:

1) Urge your U.S. Representative to oppose this bill.

2) Contribute money to our campaign.

3) Forward this alert to your friends and family.

Watch your inbox for updates in the coming weeks on medical marijuana, the Higher Education Act drug provision, bureaucratic treatment regulations, and our campaign to rein in the federal Byrne grant program, which is perpetuating the drug war across the country. We really appreciate your continued support.