The U.S. should stop arresting responsible marijuana users, Rep. Barney Frank said today, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound, of the substance.
Current laws targeting marijuana users place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, punish ill Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance and unfairly affect African-Americans, said Frank, flanked by legislators and representatives from advocacy groups.
“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business,” Frank said during a Capitol Hill news conference. “I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time…”
Allen St. Pierre, spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, likened Frank’s proposal — co-sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas — to current laws dealing with alcohol consumption. Alcohol use is permitted, and the government focuses its law enforcement efforts on those who abuse alcohol or drive under its influence, he said.
“We do not arrest and jail responsible alcohol drinkers,” he said.
Overdue.
Whenever I give my spare change to the guy on the corner, I always make him promise to use it to buy weed instead of malt liquor, because I think weed is the healthier choice. To me, it’s all about making the right choices.
The more you know…
#29–Mike==what do you mean? Tobacco is legal, so I’m missing your point. But in general society should have “an overwhelming interest” in interfering with the freedom/privacy interest of its citizens.
When it comes to ingesting substances, I see an interest but not an overwhelming interest==exception==pregnant women re the health of their fetuses.
I don’t see any work for lawyers on a change of the law. Every product could have a warning on it OR there could just be a law making providers liability free. Tobacco companies face liability for lying about their product. No lies, no liability.
“This shit is dangerous. Only idiots would take it. Only a more idiot government interferes with the liberty of their citizens. Rock On and don’t fantacize you weren’t warned.”
#17 Um Dave, hate to break it to ya, but Barney Frank is kinda gay. And gay people have, well, something of a history with intrusion into their homes.
He’s allways been something of a libertarian on these issues. It’s large businesses he likes putting regulations down on.
BTW, overdue.
Barney Frank rule: “I think there’s a right to privacy. But the right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy. And people who want to demonize other people shouldn’t then be able to go home and close the door and do it themselves.”
There is absolutely no valid reason for alcohol and nicotine to be legal and marijuana to illegal. That said,
> Reps. William Lacy Clay, D-Missouri,
> and Barbara Lee, D-California, said
> that in addition to targeting
> nonviolent offenders, U.S.
> marijuana laws unfairly target
> African-Americans.
What a total load of bullshit. How exactly do marijuana laws “unfairly” “target” blacks? Do blacks not have the same options of abstaining from marijuana use as non-blacks? Does crack “unfairly” “target” hookers?
#21
> but woe betide anyone
> who tries to buy
> distilling equipment!
That’s because you can blow up your house and your neighbor’s house with a still which you can’t do by brewing beer. There are good reasons for stills to be illegal.
It drives me crazy when people say that if drugs were legalized then there’d be a mad rush of people to use them.
No, there wouldn’t.
People don’t use drugs if they don’t want to use them, plain and simple. I have no desire to smoke weed, even though it’s plentifully available. Would I change my mind if it were legal? No, of course not, and a vast majority of people feel the same way.
If someone causes a wreck while high, then you impose the same penalties as someone who causes an accident while drunk. But to throw people in jail for smoking/possessing weed but allowing people to get wasted on alcohol is and has been the height of hypocrisy in this country for decades.
Brian, if something is made illegal, it does have an effect on its use.
Bobbo, yes tobacco is legal, but the push has been in an illegal direction. No smoking in airplanes, bars, restaurants, workplaces, apartments, etc.
You can parse the tobacco case all you want, but the lawyers went after them for selling a legal product, that caused negative effects for some people. I see the same thing happening, if not for marijuana, but for cocaine, heroin, etc.
#37
> If someone causes a wreck
> while high, then you
> impose the same penalties
> as someone who causes an
> accident while drunk.
Therein lies the rub. There is no test to establish whether you were high while you were driving. The best that can be achieved is a blood test and since marijuana shows in your blood weeks after you smoke it, it is inconclusive. If I were to don the tinfoil hat, I would say that it is specifically because there is no such test that marijuana is illegal.
“I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time…”
Allen St. Pierre, spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, likened Frank’s proposal
james
california dui
How can we continue to jail people and spend billions of tax $’s every yr.on a prohibition law predicated on “lies”. The initial arguements where that every beneficial component of the marijuana plant could be created by the labs of Dupont and Standard Oil.And secondly, that our “white women” and youth would be at risk of seduction by “colored people”.
If there was ever a time for a new taxable industry ……
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