Barney Frank to Introduce Bill to Decriminalize Possession of Small Quantities of Marijuana

The Boston Globe notes:

Representative Barney Frank said he plans to file a bill to legalize "small amounts" of marijuana. "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, said late Friday on the HBO show "Real Time," hosted by Bill Maher. Frank said he'd filed a similar bill in the 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. (AP)

Not, perhaps, the most felicitous language. A change in the federal law around marijuana would not involve "getting away with" anything. It would simply acknowledge that arresting more than 800,000 people a year for marijuana offenses is not a good use of societal resources.

(Above: Rep. Barney Frank.)

In a follow-up article, Frank is quoted as follows:

"Do you really think people should be prosecuted for smoking marijuana? I don’t think most people agree with that. It’s one area where the public is ahead of the elected officials," Frank said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It does not appear to me to be a law that society is serious about."

Frank said he was particularly troubled by federal law enforcement agencies targeting those using marijuana as a legal medical treatment under California law.

"I don’t think smoking marijuana should be a federal case," he said.