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Take Action Checklist
Contact a Presidential Candidate Today
Call the campaign office of a presidential candidate! As a voter, tell the candidates that drug policy reform issues are important to you. Explain that you will likely vote based on their drug policy reform platform, or lack thereof.
Remind the candidate that drug policy reform is increasingly present in the political mainstream. Since 1996, voters and state governments have enacted almost 150 notable drug policy reforms in 46 states. Voters deserve to know how candidates feel about these issues and with your help we can accomplish this. So start calling, e-mailing, writing, and faxing!
Tough Questions to Ask Candidates
Whether you ask a candidate questions over the phone, during an event or one-on-one after their appearance, make sure that you are polite, prepared with background information and ready to provide them with reading material on the subject. Besides asking a candidate if s/he will act immediately to end the failed “War on Drugs,” we suggest that you ask, “As president, would you…
Sentencing and Prison Reform
• Free all non-violent drug offenders from prison?
• Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences and restore judicial discretion?
• End federal mandatory-minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenses?
• Create federal incentives for states to implement treatment instead of incarceration for simple drug possession arrests?
• End racially disproportionate penalties for crack cocaine possession?
• Restore the right to vote to convicted felons who have served their prison sentence?
K-12 and Higher Education
• End drug testing of K-12 students?
• Eliminate provisions in the Higher Education Act that deny student loans to anyone convicted of a drug offense?
Medical Marijuana
• Sign an executive order legalizing medical marijuana?
• End the Bush Administration’s policy of arresting medical marijuana patients and their caregivers?
• Protect the right of states to implement their own policies on medical marijuana?
• Re-schedule marijuana so that doctors can prescribe it?
• Prohibit the drug czar and other federal officials from using taxpayer money to campaign against local and state medical marijuana ballot measures?
• Decriminalize marijuana – like twelve U.S. states and most Western countries already have – so that non-violent marijuana users face fines instead of going to jail?
Preventing and treating AIDS and other communicable diseases
• Protect the right of states to implement their own policies on medical marijuana?
• Help stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases by lifting the executive ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs?
• Make methadone maintenance (the proven, most effective treatment available for heroin addiction) available by prescription and through doctors’ visits?
Providing Drug Treatment
• Ensure that individuals and organizations engaged in harm reduction (such as needle exchange or overdose prevention) are not denied access to federal funding for drug treatment?
• Require treatment instead of incarceration for non-violent drug offenders?
• Offer treatment upon request to all who need it?
• Make methadone maintenance (the proven, most effective treatment available for heroin addiction) available by prescription and through doctors’ visits?
Other Issues
• Repeal the RAVE Act, which is shutting down music and political events and threatening innocent property owners?
• Reform civil asset forfeiture laws that permit law enforcement to seize and keep private property even suspected of having been used in a crime?
• Stop subjecting those Americans not employed in safety-related positions to drug tests?
Signs to Wave at Campaign Events
If you can get in view of a TV camera your message can reach millions. Be polite and don’t push or shove.
• Stop Arresting Medical Marijuana Patients!
• Medical Marijuana Now!
• Treatment Instead of Incarceration!
• End Mandatory Minimums!
• Ban Racial Profiling!
• Repeal the RAVE Act!
• No More Drug War!
• Will (candidate’s name) End the “War on Drugs”?
• Treatment – Not Jail – for Drug Users!
• 2.2 Million Inmates: Get Non-Violent Offenders Treatment not Jail!
Attend Town Hall Meetings and Campaign Events
You can find out when the candidates are holding events or attending functions on their web sites.
Democratic Candidates
Senator John Kerry | www.JohnKerry.com | (617) 367-1551
Congressman Dennis Kucinich | www.Kucinich.us | (866) 413-3664
Republican Candidates
President George W. Bush | www.GeorgeWBush.com | (703) 647-2700
Political Party Sites
Democratic Party – www.Democrats.org
Republican Party – www.GOP.org
Green Party – www.GP.org
Libertarian Party – www.LP.org
Drug Policy Reform Material
Be prepared with background information and ready to provide candidates with reading material on the subject. The Drug Policy Alliance website is full of information that you can read and print:
Library resources
Fact sheets
Fax campaigns
and much, much more.....
Tell Us How Candidates Answered Your Questions
We would love to know how the candidates answered your questions. Please email us at actionfeedback@drugpolicy.org.
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