Medical marijuana advocates have the truth, the voters, and even a few brave politicians. So why are they getting nowhere? On July 29 the House of Representatives, by a voice vote, (which means nobody's vote had to be recorded) reaffirmed a previous decision ordering officials not to count the vote on Initiative 59, which Washington, D.C. citizens had voted on last November. Initiative 59 would have authorized the medical use of marijuana, with a recommendation or prescription from a licensed physician. Exit polls showed that it had support from about 70 percent of D.C.'s voters. But a few weeks before the election was held, Republican Rep. Bob Barr attached an amendment to a District appropriations bill forbidding the use of any funds to count the votes on this measure. Counting the vote involved flipping a computer switch, at an estimated cost of $1.28. [continues 3600 words]
Rep. Ron Paul , R-Surfside, the lone House member to vote against a bill to tighten restrictions on a so-called "date rape" drug, characterized his opposition as anti-federalism. "It is much easier to ride the current wave of federalizing every human misdeed in the name of saving the world from some evil than to uphold a constitutional oath which prescribes a procedural structure by which the nation is protected from what is perhaps the worst evil, a national police state," Paul said in a prepared statement on Friday. [continues 164 words]
WASHINGTON -- The House approved legislation Tuesday to beef up penalties for anyone who misuses GHB, a substance blamed in the 1996 death of a 17-year-old La Porte, Texas, girl. The drug, which has become popular in nightclubs and at parties, has been linked to cases of date rape. The bill, called the Hillory J. Farias Date Rape Prevention Act, would add gamma y-hydroxybutrate (GHB) to the list of Schedule I drugs, which includes controlled substances such as heroin and cocaine. [continues 242 words]
Willie Jones, a landscaper, booked a flight from Nashville to Houston. He was carrying $9,000 in cash to buy nursery stock. He paid for his $267 plane ticket in cash, whereupon he was detained by federal officers who told him that anyone carrying that much cash had to be involved in drugs. They confiscated his money and it took him more than two years to get it back. Evidence of the misuse of the Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984 is compelling, and it's no surprise that this is so. This misbegotten statute attacks fundamental constitutional rights. Under it, no law-abiding citizen is safe from having his or her property seized by out-of-control authorities. [continues 510 words]
WASHINGTON - In a victory for an unusual coalition of conservatives and civil-liberties groups, the House voted Thursday to scale back the authority of police and federal agents to confiscate property or money from people who are never charged with a crime. The vote was 375-48. In the Arkansas delegation, Republican Jay Dickey and Democrats Marion Berry and Vic Snyder voted for the measure; Republican Asa Hutchinson opposed it. The legislation -- which sets a tougher new requirement that police have "clear and convincing evidence" of criminal activity before seizing property or money -- also got help from Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a longtime opponent of changing current law. [continues 664 words]
June 16, 1999 Chairman Mica, Rep. Mink, and other Distinguished Members of the Subcommittee: My name is Scott Ehlers and I am the Senior Policy Analyst for the Drug Policy Foundation in Washington, D.C. Thank you for inviting me to testify about our nation's drug policies and the growing movement to bring about drug policy reform. I am proud to say that the Drug Policy Foundation has been on the forefront of these efforts since the organization's inception in 1986. [continues 1948 words]
When government regulators recently announced they were pulling the plug - for now, at least - on plans to strip away the final facade of financial privacy for all Americans, one can imagine they did so with a knowing smirk on their face. A smirk because they know what the average American does not: Most big banks already have "Know Your Customer" programs in place. The regulations by that name, proposed last December, would require banks to keep records on the spending and savings habits of every client, with any deviation being reported as "suspicious" to the Internal Revenue Service, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other government agencies. [continues 1539 words]
Flush with their success in forcing regulators to drop proposed rules on tracking bank customers' habits, civil libertarians and other groups are organizing a big e-mail campaign to end reporting requirements for cash transactions. Law enforcement authorities, in response, are warning against any weakening of the Bank Secrecy Act. Officials of the Justice and Treasury departments and the U.S. Customs Service told Congress last week that the 1974 law is an essential tool for detecting and prosecuting money launderers and drug traffickers. They testified at a hearing of the House Banking subcommittees on oversight and financial institutions. [continues 170 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) When it went after suspected money launderers in Operation Casablanca last year, the U.S. Customs Service used about 80 suspicious activity reports filed by banks under a 1974 law to identify their bank accounts. That enabled Customs agents to locate suspects' assets that were seized and forfeited in the operation, which was the biggest drug money-laundering case in U.S. history. The Customs Service is pointing to it as an example of the Bank Secrecy Act's value, as civil libertarians and other groups organize a big campaign to end the law's reporting requirements for cash transactions. [continues 503 words]
WASHINGTON -- Flush with their success in forcing regulators to drop proposed rules on tracking bank customers' habits, civil libertarians and other groups are organizing a big e-mail campaign to end reporting requirements for cash transactions. Law-enforcement authorities, in response, are warning against any weakening of the Bank Secrecy Act. Officials of the Justice and Treasury departments and the U.S. Customs Service are expected to tell Congress today that the 1974 law is an essential tool for detecting and prosecuting money launderers and drug traffickers. They are scheduled to testify at a hearing of the House Banking subcommittees on oversight and financial institutions. [continues 398 words]
WASHINGTON - Flush with their success in forcing regulators to drop proposed rules on tracking bank customers' habits, civil libertarians and other groups are organizing a big e-mail campaign to end reporting requirements for cash transactions. Law enforcement authorities, in response, are warning against any weakening of the Bank Secrecy Act. Officials of the Justice and Treasury departments and the U.S. Customs Service are expected to tell Congress Tuesday that the 1974 law is an essential tool for detecting and prosecuting money launderers and drug traffickers. They are scheduled to testify at a hearing of the House Banking subcommittees on oversight and financial institutions. [continues 583 words]
When federal regulators said last week they were abandoning a controversial plan to expand bank surveillance of customers, privacy advocates were hopping mad. The not-so-obvious reason? Banks already are required to monitor customers for "suspicious" deposits and withdrawals. And last week's decision to nix the formal "Know Your Customer" proposal didn't change that a bit. Over 88 percent of US banks had Know Your Customer policies in place as of January 1999, according to an American Bankers Association survey. [continues 821 words]
WASHINGTON - Citing complaints that new rules could turn every bank teller into a cop, a Texas lawmaker is proposing legislation aimed at protecting the financial privacy of Americans. The far-reaching legislative package unveiled Wednesday by Republican Rep. Ron Paul would, among other things, block proposed anti-money-laundering rules that would track the habits of bank customers. At least two federal banking agencies are reconsidering the proposed "Know Your Customer" rules in response to the public outcry that started in December. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., for example, had received more than 14,000 e-mail messages and letters opposing the proposal as of Friday. [continues 289 words]
Congress should prevent tellers from being made into cops Proposed new "Know Your Customer" rules rules requiring banks to gather data on all customer transactions is another step toward more intrusive government that is best avoided. The proposed regulations, aimed at rooting out the laundering of money by criminals, would require banks to set up a system to track customers' sources of income and their typical patterns of financial activity. If a bank detected "suspicious" activity in a customer's accounts, it would be required to notify federal investigators. [continues 200 words]
Citing complaints that new rules could turn every bank teller into a cop, a Texas lawmaker is proposing legislation aimed at protecting the financial privacy of Americans. The far-reaching legislative package, unveiled Wednesday by Republican Rep. Ron Paul, would, among other things, block proposed anti-money laundering rules that would track the habits of bank customers. At least two federal banking agencies are reconsidering the proposed "Know Your Customer" rules in response to the public outcry that started in December. As of Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., for example, had received more than 14,000 e-mails and letters opposing the proposal. [continues 474 words]
Privacy advocates and bankers have complained that every teller could become a cop. Citing complaints that new rules could turn every bank teller into a cop, a Texas lawmaker is proposing legislation aimed at protecting the financial privacy of Americans. The far-reaching legislative package unveiled Wednesday by Republican Rep. Ron Paul would block, among other things, proposed anti-money-laundering rules that would track the habits of bank customers. At least two federal banking agencies are reconsidering the proposed "Know Your Customer" rules in response to the public outcry that started in December. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., for example, had received more than 14,000 e-mail messages and letters opposing the proposal as of Friday. [continues 288 words]
WASHINGTON -A proposal by banking regulators that banks keep closer tabs on customers has become a national privacy issue, prompting a Texas lawmaker to introduce legislation to block the rules. The proposed regulations, called "Know Your Customer," would require financial institutions to develop customer profiles, monitor accounts and report any unusual activity, such as large deposits or withdrawals. They were designed to spot the flow of illegal drug money or money laundering. "These rules are more like `Spy on Your Neighbor' and I have not met anyone who likes them," said Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, who introduced a package of three bills yesterday to provide "financial privacy." [continues 304 words]
A proposal that would force banks to keep closer track of customers' transactions and report them to the government will be rewritten or even scrapped because of public outcry, federal regulators said Wednesday in Chicago. The proposed rule, designed to combat money laundering and other illegal activity, has encountered opposition from bankers, privacy advocates and citizens who say it would turn banks into government spies and put unnecessary regulatory burdens on the industry. Richard Small, the Federal Reserve official who drafted the proposed rule, said it has been misinterpreted and that he has "nobody but myself to blame for that." He and two other government officials were part of a panel discussion on the proposal at the Fairmont Hotel. [continues 807 words]
WASHINGTON -- Citing complaints that new rules could turn every bank teller into a cop, some House members are proposing legislation aimed at protecting the financial privacy of Americans. The legislative package announced Wednesday by Republican Rep. Ron Paul, R- Texas, would block proposed anti-money-laundering rules that would track the habits of bank customers. Paul said about a dozen lawmakers, including House Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas, are joining him as co-sponsors of the bill to stop the "Know Your Customer" rules. Privacy advocates, conservative groups, ordinary people and bankers' themselves have complained that the rules would make every bank teller responsible for doing the job of the police. [continues 224 words]
WASHINGTON - Amid an avalanche of public complaints that proposed federal rules could turn every bank teller into a spy for Big Brother, a Texas lawmaker is pushing legislation aimed at protecting Americans' financial privacy. The far-reaching legislative package unveiled Wednesday by Republican Rep. Ron Paul would, among other things, block proposed anti-money laundering rules that would track the habits of bank customers. At least two of the federal banking agencies that are proposing the "Know Your Customer" rules are reconsidering in response to the public outcry that started in December. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., for example, had received more than 14,000 e-mail messages and letters opposing the proposal as the end of last week. [continues 499 words]
