On Sept. 27, the House Republican Conference published its "Contract with America," featuring 10 bills to be considered during the first 100 days of a Republican-led Congress. As the new Congress commenced on Jan. 4, it's time to seriously evaluate this "Contract."

The "Taking Back our Streets Act" is an especially terrifying so-called anti-crime proposal. While the Republicans talk about "less government," their bill would accomplish the opposite. For example, $10.5 billion would be wasted building new prisons.

Everyone agrees that violent criminals should be locked up. But this bill specifically provides for the building of new facilities for nonviolent offenders in order to make room in the prisons for the violent criminals!

Instead, why not face the reality that thousands of nonviolent offenders are marijuana consumers and cultivators who should not be in prison to begin with? The "drug war" is pork for the prison-industrial complex.

The bill's "Exclusionary Rule Reform" provision would effectively destroy constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Evidence obtained during a search that violates the Fourth Amendment would be admissible in court anyway, as long as the offender had "reasonable belief that it was in conformity with the Fourth Amendment."

No one wants to see guilty people set free. But these subversive provisions would lead to a dramatic increase in police abuses. Your door could be kicked in and your home torn apart by a careless police officer who didn't bother to obtain a search warrant!

The best way to increase police effectiveness is to increase community support. Ending marijuana prohibition would instantly put up to 30 million Americans on the same side as the police and would free the police to spend more time chasing real criminals. We can all work together to fight violent crime if we abandon the grandstanding and scapegoating of marijuana consumers.