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Marijuana Law: Barney Frank to author federal decriminalization bill
3/22/08|PR.Canna Zine| Press Release

It didn't come as a huge shock to Bill Maher when Rep. Barney Frank announced on Real Time (Mar. 21) he plans to "file a bill as soon as we go back to remove all penalties for small amounts of marijuana."

The two clearly had talked about this before the show.

For the last segment before "New Rules," Maher offerd Frank the floor.

The gay Massachusetts Congressman is known for his liberal views. In fact, he gave the keynote address at the 2001 NORML Conference.

"Why are you doing this in this late stage in the history of marijuana?" Maher probed.

"Because I finally got to the point where I think I can get away with it," explained Frank,

who has been in the House since 1981. "I wanted to do it for a long time. I filed it in the state legislature in the '70s. When I got to Congress, frankly, I was feeling more cautious.

"I now think it's time for the politicians to catch up to the public. 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."

 

Majorguns420

W00T!! Go Barney, you silly fairy! A Gay man with enough balls to do somthing, I love it.

carlover_36

About time.

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MasterCylinder

Let's hope someone takes him seriously.

Unregistered

Sorry guys but that is terrible news. His timing could not be worse. If he introduces the bill now then all candidates will be questioned about it on the campaign trail and they ALL will say it's a bad idea and vow to veto. He needs to wait until after the election.

 

MagnusCannabis

I wholly agree with the "Noooooooo..." guy comment, this is a terrible time to introduce such legislation into congress. You cannot give presidential candidates, no matter how liberal they are, political ammunition to fuel their campaigns. This bill will get shot down so quickly simply due to bureaucratic pressure. Nobody will even take the time to truly analyze the consequences, regardless of their poteniality. I have been ranting and raving since highschool about the benefits of legalized marijuana but you have to approach this very carefully. The neo-conservative pundits whos' only job is ignorant ranting will eat this up. Nevermind the fact that this bill might not make it through the legislature, if one of the democratic candidates does get the conjones to stand up for the bill (equating roughly to political suicide) then they will be bashed like a bunny against a bear by the republican right. In short, ANY chance that a democrat will be elected president must be fostered, not hindered. This is a sticky issue (please notice pun) and it needs to be handled with the utmost care and consideration. Believe me people, every intelligent person in academia and other fields knows that legalization is the right path. Unfortunetly the short sighted and near neolithic opponents simply have too much firepower right now.

MasterCylinder

I got to agree with you guys on that. Now is really not the time as any candidate who would be for it would be called "soft on crime" by the other side.
BTW.....I like that phrase.....do you mind if I use that somewhere else?

Jibber420

You guys do make a good point, the timing is not the best in regards to the presidential elections. However, doesn't it take a while for these things to get going? By starting the paper work and such now perhaps by the time it actually grabs national media attention the 08 elections might be over. I could be wrong but to me it just seems like most things in congress take forever to to go through, its a slow process. Either way, even if this were to be postponed til after the elections, this still seems like a long shot! It still seems highly unlikely that this would pass even after the elections. At the very least, I hope that this creates national debates that the media will actually cover to get Americans "thinking" about how out of wack the war on drugs really is. Legalizing marijuana will not happen overnight, but this could be a very huge step if people actually make an honest debate out of it.

Buzzby

There's no way this bill can pass at this point in time, presidential election or not. There simply aren't enough people in Congress ready to vote for it. The value is in getting it out there. It will probably take many tries before a legalization bill is passed, but at least this will get the idea out there as a real possibility.

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"If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world."
~ Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 03/22/2008

quickie

While I agree this bill will get nowhere, my point in the "noooooo" post was that if he had waited until after the election then we would have at least had the chance for the new "prez"
to voice an honest opinion on the subject. Speaking of it now we will only hear the party line on the subject. Once the are elected they can speak a little more honestly, just a little bit mind you.