In the parlance of Emeril, Barney Frank just took his support of rational weed policy and kicked it up a notch. Behold the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009. Bam! Introduced last week and co-sponsored by libertarian weed ally Ron Paul, the bill would eliminate federal penalties for possessing up to 100 grams of herb. In addition to eliminating low-level possession charges, the bill would give state governments the option to shuck off all of their respective weed laws and adopt the new federal non-intervention policy.
Rep. Frank is on quite a roll, having recently introduced another bill to protect medical marijuana users from prosecution. Perhaps he figured while he was at it, he may as well try to reform the whole dirty business that is the War on Marijuana.
If this bill seems strangely familiar to you, that is probably because it is a re-introduced version of the same bill from last year, also sponsored by Frank. The last iteration was sent into sub-committee and never saw the light of day again. Will a new Congress and a new President with a new mandate be enough to change its fate this time? In the words of old Barney:
It’s time for the politicians to catch up with the public on this. The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly.
Silly, yes. But is this the year that the US Congress finally dispenses with the silliness? Is it silly to hope so?
