if we waited for "the left" to do something like this...oh well, no
further comments...right on to the libertarians, in this instance...
fs



Libertarian Party runs provocative anti-War on Drugs newspaper ads

[February 26] The Libertarian Party has launched a provocative
advertising
campaign that accuses Drug Czar John Walters and other pro-War on Drugs
politicians of financially aiding terrorism.

The full-page ads, a parody of an ongoing Office of National Drug
Control
Policy (ONDCP) advertising campaign, appear Tuesday in USA Today and the

Washington Times.

USA Today has a circulation of just under 2.2 million. The Washington
Times
reaches just over 100,000 readers.

"We wanted to shake up the nation's drug debate," said Libertarian Party

Executive Director Steve Dasbach. "The federal government has been using
the
hatred of terrorists caused by the September 11 attacks to prop up its
sputtering War on Drugs.

"We want to make sure the other side of the debate is heard -- and we
want
to make our point in a provocative, in-your-face way that the Drug Czar,
the
White House, and pro-War on Drugs politicians cannot ignore. We think
our
ads will do that."

The Libertarian advertisement charges that the War on Drugs creates
black
markets that boost the price of illegal drugs by as much as 17,000%,
funneling massive profits to terrorist organizations.

The ad shows a huge blowup of the face of Drug Czar John Walters, and
states: "This week, I had lunch with the President, testified before
Congress, and helped funnel $40 million in illegal drug money to groups
like
the Taliban."

The advertisement tells Americans: "If you support the War on Drugs or
vote
for the politicians who wage it, you're helping support terrorism." It
also
directs readers to a website for more information:
http://www.LP.org/drugwar.

The ad is a parody of an ongoing ONDCP advertising campaign alleging
that
Americans who buy illegal drugs support terrorism.

One typical ONDCP ad shows a closeup of a young woman's face, and says:
"Last week, I washed my car, hung out with a few friends, and helped
murder
a family in Colombia."

The bottom of the ONDCP ads state: "Drug money helps support terror. Buy

drugs and you could be supporting it too."

The problem with the ONDCP ads, said Dasbach, is that the War on Drugs
causes the very problem those ads complain about.

"The War on Drugs turns ordinary, cheap plants like marijuana and
poppies
into fantastically lucrative illegal products that enrich terrorists,"
he
said. "Without the War on Drugs, the financial engine that fuels many
terrorist organizations would sputter to a halt."

The Libertarian advertisement is deliberately designed to be provocative
to
help get its message across, said Dasbach.

"We have thrown down the gauntlet," he said. "The Drug Czar wants to
tell
the 94 million Americans who have peacefully used illegal drugs that
they
are helping terrorism. That's nonsense.

"The fact is, the War on Drugs, the politicians who vote for it, and the

bureaucrats who administer it are the best friends that terrorists ever
had.
We want voters to know that federal drug policy is making America less
safe."

At the website given in the advertisement -- www.LP.org/drugwar -- the
Libertarian Party presents factual evidence buttressing its claim that
the
War on Drugs enriches terrorists.

The website quotes from a report issued by the ONDCP, "The Price of
Illicit
Drugs: 1981 Through the Second Quarter of 2000" (October 2001), that
states:
"Illicit drug prices are many magnitudes higher than would otherwise be
the
case were there no effective source zone, interdiction, and domestic law

enforcement programs."

The site also cites the Hoover Digest (Issue No. 1, 2000), published by
the
Hoover Institution, which give the "17,000 percent" mark-up figure for
illegal drugs. The Hoover Digest article was written by Joseph D.
McNamara,
former police chief of Kansas City, Missouri and San Jose, California.

In addition, the site quotes the ONDCP's site, www.theantidrug.com, U.S.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), and the Congressional Research
Service.

"We make a very solid case that the War on Drugs dramatically increases
the
price of drugs," said Dasbach. "That's why terrorists flock to the drug
trade -- and earn hundreds of millions of dollars in artificially
inflated
profits. They then use that money to finance violence against innocent
people, corrupt law enforcement, wage civil wars, and destabilize
governments around the world.

"That's why this is such an important message for us to convey to
voters. If
we eliminate the War on Drugs, we can eliminate the enormous, inflated
profits terrorists get from illegal drug trafficking. We can take away
their
financial ammunition. We can make America safer."

The two ads cost the Libertarian Party just over $71,200 to run.

The party raised most of the money from its e-mail list of LP supporters
in
just five days, said Dasbach -- however, about one-third of the money
came
from non-LP sources.

"A number of drug reform groups are very excited about what we're
doing," he
said. "Groups like the Drug Reform Coordination Network forwarded our
messages to their own e-mail lists, and a significant number of
non-party
members made generous contributions. Their help made these ads
possible."

The party did considerable legal research before booking the ads, said
Dasbach, to make sure it would not face any lawsuits.

"We ran the advertisement by the party's legal counsel, and he said we
fall
solidly within the 'fair-use' doctrine," he said. "Even though our ad
uses
the likeness of a real person, mimics the look-and-feel of the ONDCP
ads,
and makes a provocative claim, we are on solid legal ground."

Since the ad is "political speech," a much higher standard of scrutiny
would
be applied than would be the case with commercial ads, said Dasbach.

The Supreme Court has held -- most notably in the precedent-setting case
of
Hustler Magazine, Inc., et al v. Jerry Falwell, et al -- that even
barbed
satire of public figures is protected speech under the Constitution, he
said.

The Libertarian Party ad is running in just two newspapers, said
Dasbach,
but the party may expand it to other newspapers in the future.

"The ONDCP ads have run in 293 newspapers around the country," he said.
"Wouldn't it be poetic justice to have the face of John Walters, the
terrorists' best friend, staring out of every one of those same
newspapers?"

To view the ad, visit: http://www.lp.org/issues/drugczarad.html