It’s hard to imagine a bill like this passing in its first iteration, and it would almost certainly draw a veto from this president, but Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is nevertheless poised to do something interesting. During an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Frank announced that he will soon introduce legislation to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.
Frank offered no details on his legislation, and it’s not at all clear that he could ever get it to the House floor for a vote. A Frank aide was unaware of his plans other than his statement on HBO.
Frank has introduced legislation in previous years to allow the use of “medical marijuana,” although the bills never made it out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Asked by Maher as to why he would push a pot decriminalization bill now, Frank said the American public has already decided that personal use of marijuana is not a problem.
“I now think it’s time for the politicians to catch up to the public,” Frank said. “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.”
It sounds like Frank is thinking about this in the right way. I suspect a lot of Americans would like to “make room for serious criminals,” and would shudder if they realized how much it cost (in a time of an economic downturn and tight budgets) to incarcerate non-violent violent offenders who face jail time for possession.
Frank’s bill may take a few tries before it gains serious headway, but why not start the conversation?
Indeed, it’s probably worth keeping in mind that Frank’s position is hardly a fringe one anymore. A few months ago, then-presidential candidate Chris Dodd endorsed decriminalization…
Bill Maher handed Chris Dodd a smoking fatty during the HuffPost/Yahoo!/Slate Candidate Mashup, asking a surprise question about legalizing marijuana. To his credit, Dodd didn’t pass. He puffed.
“We’re cluttering up our prisons, frankly, when we draw distinctions” between booze and pot, Dodd said. “So I would decriminalize, or certainly advocate as president, the decriminalization of statutes that would incarcerate or severely penalize people for using marijuana.”
…and Barack Obama appears to be on the right track, too.
The Washington Times reports that Barack Obama, who told an audience of college students when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004 that he favored decriminalizing marijuana, still holds that position, although he opposes complete legalization. […]
Given what Obama seems to mean by decriminalization, this position is not exactly radical. About a dozen states are said to have decriminalized marijuana, which generally means that possession of small amounts for personal use does not result in arrest and can be punished by a modest fine at worst. Possession is still illegal in almost all of those states, the conspicuous exception being Alaska, where possession of a few ounces in one’s home does not trigger any penalty at all. Possessing more than the limit (usually an ounce), growing marijuana, or selling it remain crimes even in so call decrim states.
A sleeper issue for the ’08 campaign?