[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Congress plans to outlaw links to weed web sites, dr

["Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.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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