Marijuana Policy Project

HELENA, MONTANA — The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) — also called the drug czar's office — failed to make the legally required disclosure of campaign expenses in Montana, the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) charged today in a complaint filed with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.

On October 6, 2004, ONDCP Deputy Director Scott Burns traveled to Montana with a small entourage and made campaign stops in Helena and Billings in opposition to I-148, the medical marijuana initiative passed overwhelmingly by voters in November. In Billings, Burns was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that passage of I-148 would "help our kids get addicted to drugs." The nature of his campaigning was clear enough that the Helena Independent Record headlined its story, "Drug Czar Stumps Against I-148."

The Montana Code Annotated specifies that "a combination of two or more individuals" who "oppose a ballot issue" must "file periodic reports of ... expenditures." No such reports were filed by ONDCP.

"Montana law requires those who campaign for or against an initiative to disclose their expenditures," said Steve Fox, MPP director of government relations. "ONDCP publicly and actively campaigned against I-148, but failed to make the legally required campaign finance disclosures. For an administration that trumpets its efforts to advance democracy around the world to defy the most basic legal requirements of fair and honest campaigning is shocking."

Fox added, "It is beyond dispute that Burns actively opposed the initiative. Title 21, Section 1703(b)(12) of the U.S. Code states that the ONDCP director 'shall' take action to oppose reforms of laws regarding marijuana. Burns' trip and statements were in furtherance of this obligation, and ONDCP clearly spent thousands of dollars of taxpayer money in the process — expenses that unquestionably must be reported as campaign expenditures under Montana law. Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is constitutional for Montana to demand this reporting from the federal government."

MPP filed similar campaign finance complaints today in Alaska and Oregon, where ONDCP officials also campaigned against marijuana policy reform measures without filing the required disclosures. The full complaints are available at /WarOnDrugCzar/complaints.html.

With more than 17,000 members and 150,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana — both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit such use. MPP believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. For more information, see http://www.MarijuanaPolicy.org.

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