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[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Congress plans to outlaw links to weed web sites, dr
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] (Fwd) FC: Congress plans to outlaw links to weed web sites, dr
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 18:45:59 +0100
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: PA Axel H Horns
- Reply-to: horns@t-online.de
- Sender: owner-debate@fitug.de
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 12:30:22 -0400
To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: FC: Congress plans to outlaw links to weed web sites, drug info
Send reply to: declan@well.com
*******
Background:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=methamphetamine
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/declan.cgi?term=methamphetamine
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,21152,00.html *******
http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/methweb.html
Speed Limit
A bill banning Internet sites that publish or even link to
drug-making information looks set to sail through Congress -- to
the dismay of free-speech advocates.
by Matthew B. Stannard
April 27, 2000
A bill banning Internet sites that publish or even link to
drug-making information looks set to sail through Congress -- to
the dismay of free-speech advocates.
by Matthew B. Stannard
April 27, 2000
Watch it. The article you're reading could soon be illegal.
Why? Because of this link.
Click it, and up pops a site advertising bongs, pipes, and other
pot paraphenalia. The site is Canadian -- advertising drug
paraphernalia is illegal in the United States. But if a bill
passed by the United States Senate last year becomes law, it would
also be illegal to link to that page with the "intent to
facilitate or promote" its business.
Depending on a federal prosecutor's interpretation of "intent,"
that could make posting this article a federal crime.
It's one of the more disturbing effects of the Methamphetamine
Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999. The bill, by Sen. John Ashcroft,
R-Mo., is aimed at stopping the spread of crank. But it also has
publishers, civil libertarians, and drug reformers arming for
battle over free-speech rights.
"There's just no question there's a First Amendment issue," said
Richard Boire, a California attorney and director of the Center
for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics. "You're essentially getting into
mind-policing."
As the title implies, the bill was designed to fight the spread of
methamphetamine -- a goal so popular that liberal Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., joined with her conservative sometimes-rival,
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in writing one of the legislation's
crucial sections.
Now awaiting action on a similar version in the House, the bill
stiffens penalties for meth makers and includes money for busting
labs and treating crank addicts. But it also tackles one of the
knottier roots of the crank problem: recipies for do-it-yourself
methamphetamine posted to the World Wide Web.
Such recipes are all over the Internet; some explain how to
extract ephedrine from cold medicine, while others describe how to
set up a basic lab. Still others exist as electronic protestors
against the Ashcroft bill itself. Law enforcement officials blame
the online recipies for a rise in crank labs. Drug Enforcement
Administration officials busted 1,627 labs in 1998, a number that
has doubled over the past decade.
[...]
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