Decriminalization of LSD Bill [Passed]

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I see little chance of me supporting this in any form.

And AGAIN, this bill is not "decriminalization," this is wholesale "legalization."  I can support the former, but I can in no way support the latter.

It's one thing to not send people to jail for using LSD, it's another to turn it into a drug you can buy OTC at the local Walgreens after seeing some ads for it on the back of some magazine.

Lord, seriously, do we have to condone everything here?  You need a prescription to get Prozac but we're doling out LSD like it's candy?  And we're all supposed to be okay with this cause it's gonna get money rolling in to the government?

Pardon the tone, but I just can't believe everyone's jumping on this horrible bandwagon.  I mean, this isn't reducing crime in the slightest—it just redefines what a crime is.

despite his usual level of correctness, I think Down has won me over on this issue. It is a destructive, brain-killing drug, though, and its use should be heavily discouraged.

The problem with this is that DWTL's bill will result in LSD being actively marketed to Atlasians, just as alcohol and cigarettes are.  Think so many people would smoke if the tobacco companies couldn't advertise?

Alright, I'll support this.  Current drug laws are causing prison overcrowding, due to the incarceration of nonviolent drug users, which in turn leads to decreased sentences for violent criminals to make room for new prisoners.  That said, I have some amendments.

...
3. Sec. 3, Cl. 1 amended to read "Taxes on LSD will be 30% per gram.  Individual regions may set their own taxes on LSD as they see fit in addition to the federal tax which shall not exceed 20% per gram."

A percentage is already, by definition, a rate.  Charging a rate on a rate is horribly complex (The tax rate is 30% on 1 gram, but 60% on 2 grams?  And 45% on 1.5?), clearly not what anyone intends here, and is what got the whole thing vetoed in the first place.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Fun fact: 20–28% of LSD users experience "flashbacks," and 4 out of every 1,000 (estimated) LSD users experience "LSD-induced prolonged psychosis."

I mean, cigarettes are bad for you, but at least you don't have a 0.4% chance of f***ing up your brain on a long-term basis after smoking a pack of Virginia Slims.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The simple fact of the matter is that if we were talking about a prescription drug with a 0.4% incidence rate of long-term psychosis, we'd be moving to take it off the shelf.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Ignoring the main issue entirely, is anyone here concerned, even slightly, by the total lack of regulation in this bill?

Certainly, I am very concerned about this, but I doubt it matters—there aren't 7 votes here to pass a motion for cloture with or without regulatory language.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The simple fact of the matter is that if we were talking about a prescription drug with a 0.4% incidence rate of long-term psychosis, we'd be moving to take it off the shelf.

My argument is not that LSD is a wonder drug or serves any medical purpose at all.  My point is that the government regulating it is better than the alternative which is paying paying police, paying to incarcerate the users, and the drug still being used.

That problem is solved through decriminalization.  Unlike opiates, LSD is not associated with any serious organized crime element.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

In an effort to make this a real decriminalization rather than a legalization, I propose the following amendment:

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Let me be clear that LSD is not a drug for which there is any serious gang involvement or even criminal activity, primarily because it is typically produced by individuals acting on their own or operating small-scale operations. Because it manufactured rather than grown, there is no market for its production overseas and impossible for gangs to produce it en masse domestically. Therefore, the primary purpose of decriminalization in the case of LSD should be to reduce the number of unnecessary imprisonments related to the drug rather than the normalize its production and sale.

"Driving under the influence" is an interesting addition, and I suppose a meritous one, but it should be considered separately (and the clarification contained in the current bill serves no purpose).

I will support this amendment.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

In the mean time, just for the record, we will be voting on the following amendment and then on my own:

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Abstain.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Oh, I didn't know the vote was actually going on.  Aye.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

An unfortunate turn of events.  If we can't have decriminalization rather than legalization, then I am afraid we're going to wind up with neither.

I will be opposing cloture on this bill.

(And between Verily, Sam, Brandon, and myself, that all but kills it where it stands.)

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Aye on the motion to table.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Motions to table are something not dealt with in the OSPR.  Emsworth basically started the practice, and it has continued to this day.  His interpretation was that a motion to table required only a majority.  I think later interpretations by later PPTs would make it 2/3rds.

I have personally thought for a long while it should be 2/3rds, and that's the way I did things when I was PPT, but it is one of those things that is in the hand of the PPT, not in the hand of Senate Rules.

So far as I know, a motion to table in the U.S. Congress requires a majority vote.  It's reopening debate following a table that takes 2/3.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Technically, tabling is not supposed to be used to "kill" a bill, only to reprioritize it below more urgent and emergent issues.

It's evolved into a killing mechanism, though.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I would like to hear from those who opposed my amendment what sort of compromise they would be willing to make if we are to reduce the scale of this legislation from legalization to decriminalization.

Small time dealing shouldn't be illegal, and anything that remains illegal in regards to the drug (not that anything here should be illegal, but I digress) should involve fines, not jail time.

Virtually all dealing in LSD is "small time dealing," so that would essentially have the same effect as full-scale legalization.

I'd be more amicable to reducing jail sentences for dealing, where appropriate, or possibly replacing the sentences with very stiff fines.  There still needs to be a deterrent in place, and treating this like a speeding ticket will result in ... well, how many people do you see on the interstate speeding?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Since this bill seems to have stagnated, I'm going to repropose Verily's amendment with my own changes to it.

This new version includes a new Section 1.3, which changes the sale of LSD from an imprisonable offense to a fineable offense.

Legalization Decriminalization of LSD Bill

Section 1: Applicability
1. This law shall remove all federal restrictions on LSD in addition to legalization in Nyman and other federal territories which do not form a region.
2. The Regions of Atlasia shall be free to legalize and regulate LSD in any manner which they may choose.

Section 2 1: In Regards to the Legal Status of LSD
1. The possession and consumption of LSD (also known as lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD-25, or "acid"), a non-addictive semisynthetic psychedelic drug, shall be lawful no longer be a prosecutable offense under the law for anyone who is 18 years or older.
2. This law shall not be interpreted as to decriminalize driving under the influence of LSD, the penalties for which shall be the same as driving with a blood alcohol content higher than the legal limit, or the production and sale of LSD.
3. The sale of LSD to anyone 18 years or older shall be punished by a fine of $1,000 for the first offense and $5,000 for each subsequent offense. The sale of LSD to persons under 18 years of age shall continue to be punished in accordance with current law.

Section 3: Taxation
1. Taxes on LSD will be 30%.  Individual regions may set their own taxes on LSD as they see fit in addition to the federal tax which shall not exceed 20%.
2. Federal revenue raised from taxes on LSD will be split evenly among the following two funds:
a.) 50% of tax revenues will be distributed to the federal needle exchange program established in Act to Establish Atlasian Policy on HIV/AIDS.
b.) 50% of tax revenue will be granted to medical and scientific research on the possible medicinal uses of LSD and other psychadelic drugs.
3. Nothing in this section may prohibit regions from distributing possible tax revenues obtained from regulated LSD sales to whatever programs deemed appropriate.

Section 4 2: Status of Currently Incarcerated Nonviolent LSD Users
1. Persons convicted by a federal, territory, or District of Columbia court prior to this legislation coming into force February 29, 2008 of the production, possession, distribution, or sale of LSD may file with that court for a removal of sentence to time served.  Such removal shall be granted under this act only if the plaintiff can show that his activity would not be illegal if the provisions of Section 2 or 3 of this act had been in force at the time of conviction.  The burden of proof for a removal of sentence under this act shall be the plaintiff's.  Removal of sentence under this act shall not involve expunging non-LSD related convictions from any person's criminal record.  Nothing in this section shall alter or affect any other process of pardon or parole available with respect to such crimes.

Modification: changed strikeout over "February 29, 2008" to the intended red color for insertion; removed strike for LSD sale convictions—no use keeping LSD sellers in jail if we've determined that LSD sellers deserve a fine rather than jail time. Also deleted a stray quotation mark.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I appreciate the support.

Minor note: I just modified the text of the amendment to correct a stray HTML tag (concerning the section putting the bill in effect Feb 29, 2008).  I also removed Sen. Verily's strike of sale offenses covered in the previous section, which I intended to do but clearly did not.  I am all but certain that each and every Senator who would vote in favor of the amendment's prior form will favor the new form as well, but nevertheless I felt that it was best to offer full disclosure regarding the change.

The effect of that last modification would remove jail sentences for those currently convicted of the sale of LSD.  (Under the initial form of the amendment, this was not covered.)  While I remain intensely concerned about the possible mental health risks associated with LSD, I do realize that by virtue of the drug's subculture, those who are sellers of LSD typically have no connection with violent or organized crime elements.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Aye.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

With compromise (finally) reached, I now call for cloture on the bill.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Aye.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Aye.