Rep. Frank Introduces Marijuana Decriminalization Bill


By Daniel W. Reilly


Apr 17, 2008


(The Politico) Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced a bill Thursday that would decriminalize the personal use of marijuana and legalize the use of medical marijuana in certain states.

“I think it is poor law enforcement to keep on the books legislation that establishes as a crime something which in fact society does not seriously wish to prosecute,” Frank said in a statement.

“In my view, having federal law enforcement agents engaged in the prosecution of people who are personally using marijuana is a waste of scarce resources better used for serious crimes.”

In a pre-emptive response to the bill’s critics, Frank said the bill is not an encouragement to use the drug, rather it is an attempt to increase regulation of the product and to channel law enforcement money into more effective areas.

Marijuana law reform advocates praised Frank’s bill.

“Congressman Frank's bill represents a major step toward sanity in federal marijuana policy," said Aaron Houston, of the Marijuana Policy Project, an organization which supports decriminalization.

"The decades-long federal war on marijuana protects no one and in fact has ruined countless lives. Most Americans do not believe that simple possession of a small amount of marijuana should be a criminal matter, and it's time Congress listened to the voters."

Frank’s bill would remove federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana, but would not change existing laws governing the sale of transport of the drug.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) joined Frank as a co-sponsor of the bill.



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Good luck to progress!!

Always makes me sick when marijuana smokers are treated like criminals, when tobacco is still on sale everywhere...

Word!

Alcohol's an insane killer yet it's perfectly legal to consume it in large amounts.. I mean this is the attitude my state has: I have a buddy with a horrible record that got a DWI and did no time, he was given a deferred sentence and unsupervised probation. Really all he had to do was pay 350 dollars fine/court costs, sit through a 5 day class and complete 20 hours of community service and it's off his record..

Now what I got for possession of next to nothing was double that, besides the jail time, I was fined 700 dollars plus court costs then I was forced to make a mandatory 25 dollar donation to Crimestoppers, I had to take a 50 dollar substance abuse evaluation(The results were that I was not addicted to crack, which I was well aware of), THEN I had to take two drug awareness classes that cost around 250 dollars each. They also gave me 40 hours of community service. Oh yeah, and I had to pay 50 dollars every month to my probation officer so he could drug test me

I think at the end of my experience, I had dropped somewhere between 3 and 5 thousand dollars. For a barely distinguishable amount of Marijuana.

I also just found out that I'm ineligible for receiving anymore student aid because I was arrested for a Marijuana related offense.

Three quarters of the country's population support decriminalization efforts and I honestly don't know how people can stand for an insane policy that obviously does more harm to society than the drug itself. The penalties cause productive members of society to lose their jobs, careers, and spiral off into debt.. Of course you've also got jail time.. Our prisons here in the states are crowded with non-violent offenders. I think I read something like 1 in every 30 Americans is behind bars.. And every 38 seconds someone here is cited or arrested for a marijuana related offense.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up on this, but I do see a large shift in public attitude towards cannabis in the past 10 years..I see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. The population and the mainstream media are largely starting to accept Marijuana and the culture I think. Look at all the movies and tv shows being marketed by major studios toward the "stoner" culture. An entire basic cable network dedicated an entire day's worth of programming to the 420 holiday and the explicit use of the drug... That blows my mind.

It's funny I work with alot of young kids now and none of them are interested in cannabis whatsoever.. They're into the pills and things of that sort for recreation.. The pharmaceutical PK's and stuff like Xanax. Alot of them come to work zonked out on that sort of shit- they have to be on it every waking moment of their lives. Pot's old news for today's youth.