ADVISORY/Hip-Hop Summit Action Network Launches Rockefeller Drug Laws Counter Offensive.

Entertainment Editors/Political Writers

ADVISORY...for Wed. (March 3)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 2004

WHO:    Dr. Benjamin Chavis, President/CEO of The Hip-Hop Summit
        Action Network, The Black Student Alliance of Albany State
        University

WHAT:   The launch of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network
        counter-offensive lecture series to continue to raise public
        awareness about the unfairness of the Rockefeller Drug Laws in
        New York. Dr. Benjamin Chavis will lead off the lecture series
        at Albany State University on the topic, "Spitting Truth in
        the Face of Injustice: Raising Public Awareness About the
        Negative Impact of the Rockefeller Drug Laws on African
        Americans and Latino Americans." The lecture series will kick
        off the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network's national effort to
        increase public awareness about the unfairness of "mandatory
        minimum sentences" around the United States, of which the
        Rockefeller Drug Laws is the oldest and most repressive. This
        lecture is sponsored by The Black Student Alliance of Albany
        State University.

WHERE:  Albany State University, Campus Center - Ballroom


WHEN:   March 3rd at 10am

On Friday, February 20th, 2004, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network filed a legal action against the New York State Commission on Lobbying on the basis that the lobbying law statute is unconstitutional because it fails to provide even rudimentary due process to those charged with its violation. On Friday, February 20th, State Supreme Court Justice Bernard J. Malone signed an order enjoining the holding of three civil penalty hearings which had been scheduled against The Coalition for Fairness.

On Wednesday, February 25th, 2004, the New York State Commission on Lobbying voted to suspend the holding of any civil penalty hearings pending the resolution of the lawsuit brought by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.

"This would be a fine time to look at this statute," commented Hip-Hop Summit Action Network attorney, James Featherstonhaugh. "The fact that they have in two month, 150 cases, says to me there is a problem in the way the statute is drafted. We should be trying to encourage compliance, not make it hard and adversarial. I believe there is no question it is unconstitutional."

* After the lecture, Dr. Chavis is scheduled to give a sworn deposition concerning these issues before the New York State Commission on Lobbying in Albany at 1pm.

For further information on the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, go to www.hsan.org.

THE LECTURE SERIES EVENT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC