Posted on 03/22/2008 5:52:18 PM PDT by kingattax
Rep. Barney Frank said he plans to file a bill to legalize "small amounts" of marijuana.
Frank announced his plans late Friday on the HBO show "Real Time," hosted by Bill Maher.
"I’m going to file a bill as soon as we go back to remove all federal penalties for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana," Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Maher.
Frank didn’t define "small amounts." Efforts to reach Frank on Saturday were not immediately successful.
Frank said he’d filed a similar bill in the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1970s, but hasn’t tried since he was elected to Congress.
"I finally got to the point where I think I can get away with it," he said.
Frank said he thinks "its time for the politicians in this one to catch up to the public. The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly."
He told Maher he’d call the bill the "Make Room for Serious Criminals" bill
If they are going to continue to investigate Baseball for steroid use, then they should lead by example.
I propose something that is legally fearsome.
If and when marijuana is decriminalized, I propose that the last 88 years of laws, judicial precedents, and unconstitutional enabling acts that *only* exist because of the prohibitions against alcohol and marijuana, be repealed.
That is, the actual laws against the two substances are just the tip of the iceberg. There is an immense body of government actions *based* on these two substances that are positively abhorrent to our constitution.
Because of these two prohibitions, judges can impose injunctions on people to achieve the equivalent of criminal sanctions, when no jury can be impaneled that will convict them.
Our military performs police functions long forbidden by the Posse Comitatus Act, such an important act that it should have been enshrined into our constitution as an amendment, only because of these prohibitions.
Our Presidents have signed unconscionable treaties with foreign powers, and we give vast amounts of foreign aid solely to prevent the trafficking in marijuana.
And these are just some of the federal abominations. Each and every State has any number of laws on the books that are in defiance of individual liberty and abhorrent to our national constitution, following the federal lead. Again, all due to these foolish laws.
When prohibition ended, just the amendment was reversed. The majority of the judicial precedents and State and even County laws remained.
It will be a major legal undertaking just to uncover the foul and anti-American practices which evolved from these prohibitions. And doubly that to reverse many of them. But it is a project worth undertaking.
He told Maher he’d call the bill the "Make Room for Serious Criminals" bill.
Never thought I would ever say it - but this is one thing I AGREE with Barney Frank on!
IOW, you can't support your position in open debate. What sort of conservative defends a fed law, but can't find a justification for it in the Constitution?
“Prisons are not full of folks that are doing time for getting caught with a bag of dope in their pocket.”
Actually, I think you are mistaken.
The majority of prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, and most of those are for drug possession, and MJ is the most popular drug.”
A cure for dopers and miscellaneous malcreants would be to whip them —say 12 lashes rather then 12 months of free room and board. The Moozies do have the right idea on this bit of jurisprudence. Anyone returning for seconds should be dealt with sternly!
BTW. I am not joking. The last 150 years of caging therapy has not really been that sucessfully financially or rehabilitativewise
“Less caging and more caning”
You the newest Barney supporter???
MLB gets a government-sponsored monopoly for its trouble; the players are paid outrageously well. They have no reason to complain about the situation. If they want Congress off their back then they can give up their monopoly.
I’ll support a good idea no matter where it comes from, especially if it saves me money and eliminates or reduces an unconstitutional practice.
Some facts for you:
The vast majority of those behind bars for marijuana offenses are mid- and large-scale traffickers and distributors.
Less than one percent of all state prison inmates in 1997 were serving time just for marijuana possession (0.7 percent), and only 0.3 percent of marijuana-possession offenders were in prison on a first offense.
On the federal level, nearly 98 percent of the 7,991 offenders sentenced for marijuana crimes in 2001 were guilty of trafficking. Only 2.3 percent — 186 people — were sentenced for simple possession of marijuana.
The median amount of marijuana involved in the conviction in federal court of marijuana-only possession offenders in 1997 was 115 pounds. In other words, half of all federal prisoners convicted just for marijuana possession were arrested with quantities exceeding 115 pounds.
Read for yourself. If you want to argue for legalization, go right ahead - but please don’t perpetuate the myth that casual users are in prison.
1. Bawney is on the right track.
2. It is not a federal issue.
Most people who favor the legalization of booze and not pot fail to realize that ethyl a. is a just as much a drug as pot.
In perfect agreement with you on this one, it’s time we brought back corporeal punishments and forgot about all this “rehabilitation” nonsense.
LOL!
I would support legalization of marijuana. I don’t smoke it but it isn’t any worse or better than cigarettes or alcohol.
next it will be mandatory pot distribution in the high school to go with manadatory sex experimentation week.
YOU VILL BE DRUGGED OR ELSE.
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