Just when you thought it all couldn’t get more stupid… More election time posturing, most likely.
The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill yesterday that would make it a federal crime for U.S. residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the U.S., would violate the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) — even if the planned activities are legal in the countries where they’re carried out. The new law, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) allows prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against anyone who discusses, plans or advises someone else to engage in any activity that violates the CSA, the massive federal law that prohibits drugs like marijuana and strictly regulates prescription medication.
“Under this bill, if a young couple plans a wedding in Amsterdam, and as part of the wedding, they plan to buy the bridal party some marijuana, they would be subject to prosecution,” said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for reforming the country’s drug laws. “The strange thing is that the purchase of and smoking the marijuana while you’re there wouldn’t be illegal. But this law would make planning the wedding from the U.S. a federal crime.”
The law could also potentially affect academics and medical professionals. For example, a U.S. doctor who works with overseas doctors or government officials on needle exchange programs could be subject to criminal prosecution.
Obviously, this means other countries should be able to arrest Americans for discussing what’s criminal in their countries, but not here. Only fair…
And let’s not forget this new gem from Obama’s Justice Dept.
So what does a former deputy sheriff in LA think about the cost of the drug war?
Fuckers. I would hope that the US courts would shoot it down immediately.
But then again, the Supreme Snort approved the grotesque abuse of Eminent Domain in that Kelo case as Constitutional where a bunch of people were summarily evicted from their homes to make way for a car plant…
There are legal statutes prohibiting sex tourism and the abuse and exploitation of minors by Americans while on vacation in foreign countries. So there is a legal precedent to the control of American behaviour in foreign jurisdictions (excluding Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan of course). Whether this should be applied in this circumstance, is unprecedented.
This, much like the website layout, is complete and total crap.
Why do so many idiots come from Texas.
Yup, the US needs more people in jail. Creates jobs and such.
The bill is from Texas because it’s for peeps heading to Mexico; border rumors are a full legalization of drugs. These rumors have been around along time but seem a tad different now with more emphasis on actually happening.
So let’s see. I PLAN to have a wedding in Amsterdam. I PLAN to have a cake, I PLAN to have a honeymoon downtown above that “coffee shop”, BUT…
I DIDN’T PLAN on having those drugs. It just happened.
Who’s gonna know??
so if you are say, in afganistan, or saudi, and you discuss or plan doing something that you plan to do here in the states that violates the local muslim laws they should be ok to arrest you there and wack off your head or hand or whatever is suitable in that culture, for say planning to drive a car in the usa if you are a woman, or plan to not wear a bee suit, or be a the same vehicle as someone of the opposite sex whom you are not married to, or heaven forbid drink alcohol. i mean if you are a couple of gi’s, or anybody, and you discuss getting drunk when you get home while in an arab country then it should be ok for them to arrest you for engaging in the illegal planning.
Wouldn’t this mean that talking about the bill would be detailing the act of getting drugs, which is illegal. So talking about the bill is illegal.
Repeal the CSA. Legalize all of it. I want to see Walmart and Target competing to sell meth and heroin at the lowest price. I know the blood thirsty statists with their puritan authority fetish shudder at the thought of not telling people how to live their lives, but this drug “war” is working just as well as prohibition did.
When in Rome……… But I am an American and may go to jail once I get home.
I think that you should be bound to follow every single law that is in force wherever you were born, wherever you reside, and wherever your flight took off from.
Which side of the road you drive on: Not optional. You drive on the right, mister, and don’t you forget it! Look out Oz, NZ, Japan and the UK. American coming through.
This one is tricky. If you traffic into the US, even if you live in another country you are breaking US law. Say somebody lived in the US and controlled drugs going in from north Africa to Europe only. They might not be committing a crime under US laws, but COULD be extradited to a European country to face charges there.
The hypothetical wedding party doesn’t stand up as a legit reason for this law, but US persons advising foreign nationals on PUBLIC POLICY that conservatives don’t like just might.
I think this issue is ALL about money. When there is enough money on the legal distribution side to balance the money going to law enforcement and prisons we will start to see movement on US domestic drug policy.
Pedro is glossing over that nobody declared alcohol to be safe when prohibition was ended. The effects of alcohol are still very damaging to society, but the effects of prohibition were worse.
Everything is on a balance.
Pedro says:
“Crime will be eliminated when we legalize alcohol!
Not!”
That’s right, but we don’t see the same level of mob activity (outside of drugs distribution) anymore do we? Crime is not going to be eliminated until all people are eliminated, but rationalizing the laws are going to atomize criminals networks.
In Mexico you multiple international networks that cohere around smuggling. Are these guys going to disappear if they lose that revenue? Absolutely not. But they aren’t going to have the same reach if they are only doing localized protection/kidnapping rackets.
A decade of international cooperation on transnational terrorist groups has made a lot of progress. 30-40 years of international cooperation on drug smuggling appears to have made NO dent in the ability of smuggling orgs to operate(in the aggregate, of course).
We ought to be targeting financial fraud instead of drugs. It has done a hell of a lot more damage.
Wow, that’s gotta be one of the most laughable bills I’ve heard of in a while.. XD
Kinda like the law up here in Norway saying that you can’t rent hookers out of country. And approximately as enforceable.
But hey. Maybe they can integrate it with the whole see something, say something bullcrap. =o
..So, i guess if by some stroke of insanity this passes, we all best be pulling the batteries out of *all* wireless communication devices when not in use.
How else are they going to know you were “discussing” illegal activities?
-and you know they wont stop at drugs.
When we re-build our government from scratch, I vote this treasonous scum to be the first one hung by his toenails for even THINKING about entering this BS globalist legislation into law.
-s
Perhaps they can extend this to the EPA, allowing us to go after companies that plan on polluting in other countries.
Labor laws would be a good candidate as well.
What are the prerequisites, for educational purposes, to run for office…not saying what is required to GET THE JOB..(besides basic logic)
And I would like to point out 1 small point.
how easy would it be to re-word this, and make things WORSE??
key words..
RESIDENTS..
this is YOU, not them..(get the point?)
not corps, not the gov..
Controlled Substances Act..
lets change that, to ANY CRIME.
now lets say,
you wish to Download something off the net..ITS LEGAL IN THE USA..but, a small Agreement has been passed(ACTA)(and a recent Copyright extension to the public domain)..YOU ARE SCREW’D..