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Rep. Barney Frank calls for decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana

Rep. Barney Frank will soon introduce legislation to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, the Massachusetts Democrat said during an appearance on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."

Frank offered no details on his legislation, and it's not at all clear that he could ever get it to the House floor for a vote. A Frank aide was unaware of his plans other than his statement on HBO.

Frank has introduced legislation in previous years to allow the use of "medical marijuana," although the bills never made it out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Asked by Maher as to why he would push a pot decriminalization bill now, Frank said the American public has already decided that personal use of marijuana is not a problem.

"I now think it's time for the politicians to catch up to the public," Frank said. "The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly. I'm going to call it the 'Make Room for Serious Criminals' bill."

Posted By Psychotrophic at 2008-03-24 11:29:56 permalink | comments
Tags: marijuana decriminalization politics congress
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yum. : 2008-03-24 19:14:59
Squid Believer wrote:

> The final war to end all wars will take place in the battlefield of our mind.

Well put!

Squid Believer. : 2008-03-24 15:00:35
Once Arnold is president, things should finally get caught up on the decrim/legalize/medical tip. I mean just look at California-it's pro, and it's been happening under Arnold. Republicans actually smoke more pot than we think. It's the extremist Christians and Catholics that make it so hard to end the drug war. Plus all the acid and speed casualties who think cigarettes and beer are OK, but acid and mushrooms are bad. We need more people setting an example, much like Jesus or Buddha did. Gay's are fighting for their right for marriage. The psychedelic community has to stand up for our rights too. I think that for a lot of us coming out of the psychedelic closet is what really needs to be happening in America right now more than anything. The final war to end all wars will take place in the battlefield of our mind.
jamesk : 2008-03-24 12:41:13
If there is no federal law to back up State or local pot laws, even medical marijuana laws, then the DEA can still bust you and make it a federal case. California medical pot providers are getting heat from the DEA all the time, even though CA now legally allows medical marijuana.
zupakomputer. : 2008-03-24 12:05:46
Doesn't the US have a means whereby at State level certain laws can be altered anyway, regardless of what the main govt. laws are - I'm sure that was previously used by some states so they could effectively make marijuana legal by taxing profits made from its sale.

I'm not sure if it was the same method used so that some states can have legal gambling and legal other stuff (different gun laws, different prostitution laws, different laws about the death penalty), and other states don't.

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