Under the guise of fighting methamphetamine, Senators Hatch and Feinstein are sponsoring a bill that would make it a Federal offense punishable by up to ten years in prison to tell someone how to plant industrial hemp, use marijuana to alleviate a medical condition, or use a vaporizer to overcome the objections to smoking medical marijuana emphasized by the IOM Report. (Under federal law growing marijuana is "manufacturing.")
See
Counterblaste to DEA: Fallacious Pharmacology.
"The contention that smoking cannot possibly be an acceptable route for the administration
of a therapeutic substance is morality dressed up as science." by Peter Webster

It will also make it a crime to "link to" a web site selling "drug paraphernalia" -- which is aimed at headshops that sell pipes, etc.

This will not reduce marijuana consumption, but it will reduce the ability of marijuana users to communicate, and it will also reduce the cash flow in the cannabis community. Headshops will emphasize tobacco, and they may have to stop selling High Times and Cannabis Culture magazines or anything else that pertains to marijuana.

Of course, pipes and rolling papers will still be available at tobacconists and other stores.

This is a part of the usual "bait-and-switch" of prohibitionism, to use a real or imaginary problem with hard drugs to create a "crisis" and then pass laws that fall most heavily on marijuana, thus aggravating the hard drug problem and reducing everyone’s freedom.
See
HOW THE NARCS CREATED CRACK by Richard C. Cowan

The parts of the bill that would censor the Internet – and all of the other media – theoretically depend on the "intent" of the information provider. This "intent" will inevitably be determined by the context, meaning whether or not the information is from any advocate of marijuana reform, medical marijuana, or hemp planting in DEAland. The DEA will make this determination.

Even as the General Accounting Office is criticizing the counterproductive nature of the DEA’s efforts,
See
General Accounting Office Report Says DEA Actions
Followed By Increased Violence And Increased Availability Of Hard Drugs.
this bill would greatly increase its power and staffing.

Finally, demonstrating the obsessive/compulsive nature of prohibitionism, the bill would require that all government web sites carry prohibitionist propaganda, and naturally most of that will inevitably be focused on marijuana. Certainly, none of it is going to be about alcohol.
See
Why Alcohol Warnings Aren’t Likely To Be Included In The Czar’s Propaganda…
Another One We Couldn’t Make Up

The teaming of a "Conservative" Republican like Hatch and a supposedly "Liberal" Democrat like Feinstein demonstrates how the American people are caught between the theocratic state and the therapeutic state.

Below is a Press Release from Senator Feinstein’s office and excerpts from the bill that will have the greatest impact on the cannabis community.

Senators Hatch and Feinstein Introduce New Measure to Curb Methamphetamine
July 29, 1999

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) this week introduced new legislation to combat the growing scourge of the highly addictive drug methamphetamine.

The Hatch-Feinstein Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 focuses particular attention on the problem of methamphetamine manufacturing and is designed to provide law enforcement with additional tools to effectively deal with the problem. In 1996, the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act was passed into law. Authored by Senators Feinstein, Hatch and Joseph Biden (D-Del.), this bill aimed to curb the production and abuse of this dangerous drug.

"I am pleased to join with Senator Hatch on this important legislation that will aid law enforcement in its fight against methamphetamine," Senator Feinstein said. "The threat from meth is much different than other illegal drugs because it can be made from readily available and legal chemicals and substances, and is extremely dangerous to both humans and our environment."

According to the DEA, the number of labs cleaned up by the Administration has almost doubled each year since 1995. Last year 5,786 amphetamine and methamphetamine labs were seized by DEA and State and local law enforcement officials, and millions of dollars were spent on cleaning up the pollutants and toxins created and left behind by operators of these labs.

Specifically, Hatch-Feinstein Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 (S.1428):

• Authorizes the hiring of new Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents to carry out a variety of anti-meth initiatives. Agents will be hired to assist State and local law enforcement officials in small and mid-sized communities in all phases of methamphetamine manufacturing investigations. The bill also authorizes the expansion of the number of DEA resident offices and posts of duty, which are smaller DEA offices often set up in small and rural cities that are overwhelmed by methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking.
• Helps the DEA assist State and local officials to provide for the training of State and local law enforcement personnel in techniques used in methamphetamine investigations and to provide them with certification training in handling the volatile and toxic wastes produced by methamphetamine labs.
• Bans the dissemination of drug "recipes" and other demonstrative information relating to the manufacturing and use of methamphetamine and other controlled substances. The bill amends the anti-drug paraphernalia statute to clarify that advertisements for sale include the use of any communication facility, including the Internet, to post or publicize in any way any matter, including a telephone number or electronic or mail address, knowing that such matter is designed to be used to buy, distribute, or otherwise facilitate a transaction in drug paraphernalia.
• Imposes harsher penalties on manufacturers of illegal drugs when their actions create a substantial risk of harm to human life or to the environment.

"Although more needs to be done, law enforcement fortunately has been significantly increasing its efforts to combat meth," Senator Feinstein said. "Last year, over a thousand clandestine labs were seized and shut down in California alone – 1,006 by the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement (BNE), and 164 by DEA. The BNE more than doubled its lab seizures from just three years earlier in 1995, when it seized 465 labs."
See
Drug War Priorities Shift From Hard Drugs To Marijuana, Arrest Figures Reveal
-- NORML Weekly Press Release

"It has become apparent that more needs to be done to stem the tide of methamphetamine abuse," Senator Feinstein said. "I am very proud to have joined Senator Hatch on this bill, which will add to our 1996 law and will help combat this growing scourge."

The full text of the bill can be found by going to http://www.senate.gov

Click on search and enter the bill number S.1428

Hatch/Feinstein Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999

Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999’.

S.1428