16-term US Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

I’m going to miss Rep. Barney Frank!

(NY Times) You’ve long argued for the decriminalization of marijuana. Do you smoke weed? 
No.

Why not? 
Why do you ask a question, then act surprised when I give an answer? Do you think I lie to people?

I thought you might explain why you support decriminalizing it but don’t smoke it. 
Do you think I’ve ever had an abortion? I don’t play poker on the Internet, either.

Well, on “marijuana law reform”, you understand.  ;-)

The Massachusetts Congressman addresses an audience at Harvard Law School on his bills on medical marijuana and legalization and the role of the federal government in a free society.

Some great lines in this series, including “no such thing as ‘baked and disorderly’” and “nobody could smoke as much marijuana as tobacco because eventually you’d forget to light up.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

US Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

(KJ Online) PORTLAND — U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. told the state’s first Maine Medical Marijuana Expo on Saturday that current laws against marijuana use are expensive, are applied unevenly and ought to be repealed.

“People who make a personal decision to smoke marijuana should not be subject to prosecution,” said Frank, noting that the movement has allies in the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. “This is the kind of fight that’s worth making. It’s winnable.”

Frank, a powerful congressional figure on banking and finance issues, said he had been in Ogunquit earlier in the day to celebrate the repeal of the federal ban on gays and lesbians in the military.

The same evolution of attitudes that helped get that repealed should help end the prohibition on marijuana, he said.

“The younger people are, the more sensible people are on this issue,” Frank said. “I believe within 10 years we’re going to be able to substantially diminish the criminality of marijuana.”

Police, he said, have much more trouble with a loud group of young men drinking beer than a similarly loud group that has been smoking marijuana.

“Instead of bringing Mace, you might bring potato chips,” he said, to much laughter.

(Halogen Life) A proposal drafted by Frank specified that it would give states the right to adopt their own medical marijuana laws.

“I’ve felt for a long time that policy regarding the prohibition of marijuana was wrong,” Congressman Frank told me. He cited the organization NORML as a viable source for education on marijuana and its health benefits and risks. According to the group’s Web site, nicotine “promotes the development of cancer cells and their blood supply,” while “cannabis smoke — unlike tobacco smoke — has not been definitively linked to cancer in humans, including those cancers associated with tobacco use.”

Thank you, Congressman!

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-07-14.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Esquire interviews Rep. Barney Frank on decriminalization bill
2. How to encourage millions of Americans to not call 911 to report a crime
3. REEFER MADNESS: These are your California Cops. These are your California Cops on Reefer Madness. Any questions?

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Interview with Ed Rosenthal and rare acoustic track from The Grateful Dead

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• 2009 AMMA Best Experimental Song – ‘Pot in The Closet’ by Wes Day

Government at Work

• Jason Monroe on receiving back his 7 ounces of marijuana from the sheriff

ESQUIRE: Could you tell me why you’re doing it at this time? Everybody says you guys have got so much to handle right now.

BARNEY FRANK: Announcing that the government should mind its own business on marijuana is really not that hard. There’s not a lot of complexity here. We should stop treating people as criminals because they smoke marijuana. The problem is the political will.

ESQ: That’s my second question. There’s already been a lot of change in the country. Thirteen states have decriminalized pot. What’s holding up Congress?

BF: This is a case where there’s cultural lag on the part of my colleagues. If you ask them privately, they don’t think it’s a terrible thing. But they’re afraid of being portrayed as soft on drugs. And by the way, the argument is, nobody ever gets arrested for it. But we have this outrageous case in New York where a cop jammed a baton up a guy’s ass when he caught him smoking marijuana.

ESQ: You’re kidding.

BF: Actually, I’ve just been corrected by my partner – it was a radio he jammed up the guy’s ass, not his baton.

ESQ: Small radio, I hope.

…

BF: Here’s one thing I would say – there’s a great intellectual flaw at work here. People say, “Oh, you want the government to approve of smoking marijuana.” And the answer is, no, there should be a small number of things that the government makes illegal, but the great bulk of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business. People can make their own choices.

ESQ: What about the “public-square” argument that we need to keep prostitutes off the streets and pot-smokers on the run in order to promote a higher level of morality and civic order?

BF: One, I don’t think it’s immoral to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, even though they may make you sick. Morality to me is the way you treat other people, not the way you treat yourself. John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty makes a great deal of sense in that regard. I wish more people read him.

Rep. Frank is absolutely right, so here is a little bit of On Liberty for today’s assigned reading.  Then go to NORML’s Take Action center and send your email to your congressperson to support HR 2943.

Though society is not founded on a contract, and though no good purpose is answered by inventing a contract in order to deduce social obligations from it, every one who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit, and the fact of living in society renders it indispensable that each should be bound to observe a certain line of conduct towards the rest. This conduct consists first, in not injuring the interests of one another; or rather certain interests, which, either by express legal provision or by tacit understanding, ought to be considered as rights; and secondly, in each person’s bearing his share (to be fixed on some equitable principle) of the labours and sacrifices incurred for defending the society or its members from injury and molestation.

… But neither one person, nor any number of persons, is warranted in saying to another human creature of ripe years, that he shall not do with his life for his own benefit what he chooses to do with it. He is the person most interested in his own well-being: the interest which any other person, except in cases of strong personal attachment, can have in it, is trifling, compared with that which he himself has; the interest which society has in him individually (except as to his conduct to others) is fractional, and altogether indirect…

A Stasher forwarded me an article from “Right Side News” that was essentially a lengthy, nasty hit piece on Rep. Barney Frank, with typical homophobic references and combining Franks’ support for decriminalization with his sexual orientation and a litany of conservative complaints about his politics as one big satanically-influenced hodge-podge of evil determined to turn America into “Woodstock Nation”.  I needn’t reproduce it here.

However, it warmed my heart to see the following in the comments from a die-hard conservative:

Wow. I wasn’t expecting this type of article from my side (right). Although I vote the same as you I do not agree with you on this one issue. The style of your writing is poor – this is just a hit piece with very little substance. I view this on the level of most from the far left.

Republican Ron Paul is a co-sponsor, yet you somehow left that part out???

…I speak the truth when I say that this issue is the Only one I agree Frank. The only one.

There have been hundreds of medical studies over the past 30 years. Nearly every one refutes your cherry-picked reports. And the fact that the DEA does not support ending prohibition of cannabis is absolutely worthless. The DEA receives billions of dollars to fight the War on Some Drugs. They have a pony in the race. Of course they want to continue receiving the vast sums of money. If cannabis is re-legalized then they stand to lose billions. Additionally, I recently learned that DEA employees are mandated By Law to oppose any re-legalization effort. If the head of the DEA said publicly that he agrees with the Frank-Paul bill then he would lose his job.

I’m a solid conservative and up until around the beginning of this year I echoed your words for two decades. I have voted 100% Republican since Reagan. I don’t use any illegal substances and neither do any of my close friends. My position changed 180 degrees after I began hearing the reports of the 1000′s of murders happening just south of our border. People are being murdered every single day down there… and it’s all because of prohibition in the US.

…As a conservative I choose to use logic and reason instead of emotions and feelings when deciding where I stand on issues. One method I employ to help me gain perspective is ‘What do the bad guys want?’

…Ending prohibition to stop the Mexican cartels:
One group thinks that ending prohibition will reduce or nearly end the violence and murder along our border. The other group thinks that we must continue this prohibition. The bad guys (cartels) want prohibition to continue. I am not going to side with murderous cartels.

Ending prohibition is not a left-right issue, although there is less support on the right than the left. This is a freedom and security issue. Security, because continuing this prohibition will cost us dearly in so many ways. Freedom, because we are a free people and free people should be allowed to put into their bodies whatever they want – even if it’s considered unwise – so long as they do not harm others or infringe on others’ rights.

There is one part of conservatism I call ‘cruelty’. We are ‘tough on crime’, I know and that’s good. Yet, most conservatives still believe it is acceptable to put hard working, otherwise law-abiding citizens, in cages because they choose to consume cannabis instead of alcohol within the privacy of their own homes.

I see it a cruel that people, such as yourself, would rather keep human beings in cages and give them a Lifetime sentence. A ‘lifetime sentence’ ? An arrest even without a conviction will remain on someone’s criminal record Forever. Their entire life is likely to be much less successful – they won’t get hired for the good jobs because of an arrest 15 years ago when they experimented with cannabis in college, for example. The charge of cannabis possession or use guarantees a lifetime sentence. …and you’re okay with that??? Stop being cruel.

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-06-29.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Reps. Frank, Paul, Hinchey, & Rohrabacher send letter to colleagues promoting marijuana decriminalization
2. Police return stolen marijuana to Boulder dispensary
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This Month in NORML with Executive Director Allen St. Pierre

• Previewing NORML National Conference 2009 – “Yes We Cannabis!”

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• 2009 AMMA Best Hip Hop Song – ‘LaLaLa (On That)’ by Adult Film Stars

Grassroots Activism

• Medical Marijuana Gardener Bernie Ellis of Fly, Tennessee, tells of his being labeled a “terrorist” and investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations to intimidate him to drop his campaign for free and fair elections.

Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009
June 24, 2009

Dear Colleague,

Last Thursday, we reintroduced HR 2943, the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009, which would remove federal penalties for the personal use of 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of marijuana by responsible adults. This bill was introduced as H.R. 5843 during the 110th Congress. The Act would not affect existing state or local laws, or any federal laws prohibiting the cultivation, sale for profit, or the import and export of marijuana.

Polls show that a majority of Americans favor the reduction of penalties for individuals who possess and use marijuana within certain limits. It is clear that as misinformation regarding the drug continues to be corrected, more people are moving to support its decriminalization. At this critical juncture in our economic history, we can no longer afford to spend money on a drug enforcement program that the public no longer supports, and which consumes law enforcement’s valuable resources and time. The federal government should remove the current conflict with state law and allow states to decide on these matters for themselves. Twelve states already have laws that significantly reduce penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, in many cases providing for a mere civil fine. The states are: California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon.

WHAT THE BILL WILL NOT DO

• It would not affect federal laws prohibiting the sale of marijuana for profit, import and export of marijuana, or manufacturing (cultivating) marijuana.
• It would not legalize major drug dealing or create obstacles for agents of the federal government seeking to prevent major drug dealing.
• It would not affect any state or local laws and regulations.
• It would not alter the legal status of marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et. seq.).

Please join us in supporting common-sense legislation that will bring federal law up to date. If you would like to become a cosponsor of Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009, please contact Pilar Falo in Congressman Barney Frank’s office; Adam Dick in Ron Paul’s office; Jeff Vanderslice in Congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s office or Namrata Mujumdar in Congressman Maurice Hinchey’s office.

Rep. Barney Frank
Rep. Ron Paul
Rep. Maurice Hinchey
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-06-18.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Rep. Barney Frank reintroduces bill to end federal penalties for personal pot possession
2. Cops question medical marijuana cards for “seemingly healthy” people
3. America’s first state-certified medical marijuana dispensary set to open in New Mexico
4. Paul Stanford, a “Legal Pot Pusher” with “$3 million business”? CNN, Anderson Cooper, shame on you!

Cannabis Conversations

• Paul Stanford of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation on last night’s AC360° profile.

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards

• Best Acoustic Song – ‘It’s Only a Weed’ by Chief Greenbud

Southern California Scene with Tere Joyce

• Laura Levites, comedian from New York City, toured with Lisa Lampenelli, now living in Los Angeles, on the differences between NY vs. LA weed scene.