[cross-posted at Scrutiny Hooligans]


James Sensenbrenner wants to put you in jail if you watch someone use drugs, and you don't report this activity to the authorities within 24 hours. HR 1528 (Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005) is the punitive right's latest attempt to fight the ill-conceived War on Drugs. Increased mandatory sentences and a vast widening of offenses are contained in the bill. Here are a few samples:

- 10 year minimum sentence for anyone over the age of 21 who sells illegal drugs to someone 18-20 years old.
- Mandatory Life Sentence for anyone over the age of 21 who sells illegal drugs to someone under 18 years old.
- increasing minimum sentences for manufacturing (or trying to manufacture) drugs near a library, daycare, or game arcade
- 5 year minimum sentence for someone over age 21 who employs a minor in drug trafficking, and a mandatory life sentence for second offenders
- 5 year minimum sentence for using or distributing illegal drugs in the presence of a minor or incompetent person
- 10 year minimum sentence if you're the parent or guardian of the minor or incompetent person
- "As used in this section, the term `in or near the presence of a person' means within visual sight of such person, within any dwelling, automobile or other vehicle, or boat, in which such person is present, or within 500 feet of such person."
- 2 year minimum sentence for selling drug paraphrenalia to a minor

And here's the humdinger:

- "It shall be unlawful for any person who witnesses or learns of a violation of sections 416(b)(2), 417, 418, 419, 420, 424, or 426 to fail to report the offense to law enforcement officials within 24 hours of witnessing or learning of the violation and thereafter provide full assistance in the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of the person violating paragraph (a).

`(b) Any person who violates subsection (a) of this section shall be sentenced to not less than two years or more than 10 years. If the person who witnesses or learns of the violation is the parent or guardian, or otherwise responsible for the care or supervision of the person under the age of 18 or the incompetent person, such person shall be sentenced to not less than three years or more than 20 years.'."

To wit, if you see your neighbor smoking a joint on his back porch at 11pm while his kids are safely tucked into their beds 25 feet away, then you must contact law enforcement within 24 hours or be subject to criminal prosecution by the U.S. Government and be sentenced to at least 2 years in prison. Your neighbor will be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Tell Congress to oppose this ridiculously savage piece of legislation. Only in a society where Freedom is on the March could people be so assailed by attacks on civil liberties and privacy rights.

Sensenbrenner is setting out to prove once and for all that drugs ruin your life by ruining the lives of those who use drugs. I'm not going to apologize for those who are predatory, criminal, and antisocial drug users, but neither will I stand by and tacitly support this attack on the millions of Americans who do what they like in the privacy of their own homes. This bill is so wrongheaded that it makes me want to go get stoned. Don't look, or you'll have to report me.

{thanks to Informed and Reborn for the tip}