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Barney Frank Pushes to Legalize Marijuana
wnd.com ^ | June 18, 2009 | staff

Posted on 06/18/2009 6:55:36 PM PDT by kellynla

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., wants to legalize marijuana and has introduced legislation that would accomplish his goals.

"Criminalizing choices that adults make because we think they are unwise ones, when the choices involved have no negative effect on the rights of others, is not appropriate in a free society," he said in his new announcement about his plans for two bills.

One proposal would remove federal penalties for using marijuana and the second would let people in states where "medical marijuana" is allowed use it freely.

The cosponsors on the bills include Reps. Ron Paul, R-Texas and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.

"To those who say that the government should not be encouraging the smoking of marijuana, my response is that I completely agree," Frank's statement said. "But it is a great mistake to divide all human activity into two categories: those that are criminally prohibited, and those that are encouraged."

(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: 111th; barneyfrank; bhowod; dope; marijuana; potheads; wod
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To: kellynla

In the UK, isn’t that called, “smoking fags”...no, thats cigarettes...sorry...


61 posted on 06/18/2009 9:33:05 PM PDT by wac3rd (80 Carter/Obama 08)
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To: kellynla

Like I had something to say here but I forget what it is.

parsy, who has just opened a bag of chips.


62 posted on 06/18/2009 9:53:24 PM PDT by parsifal ("Knock and ye shall receive!" (The Bible, somewhere.))
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To: mysterio

They should legalize tobacco use after pot.


63 posted on 06/18/2009 9:53:46 PM PDT by boop (Democracy is the theory that the people get the government they deserve, good and hard.)
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To: kellynla

Oh, now I remember. . .maybe this is why Barney forgot to monitor Fannie Mae.

parsy, who uh . . .whatever


64 posted on 06/18/2009 9:57:29 PM PDT by parsifal ("Knock and ye shall receive!" (The Bible, somewhere.))
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To: IrishPennant

Just something else addictive to tax the crappola out of.


65 posted on 06/18/2009 10:00:44 PM PDT by Danae (Amerikan Unity My Ass)
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To: truthfreedom

Take a lot of bloody Mexicans out of our National forests growing illegal pot. There are certain places in Oregon where it is really not at all safe to go, and I ain’t talkin about sasquatch here either.


66 posted on 06/18/2009 10:21:06 PM PDT by Danae (Amerikan Unity My Ass)
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To: kellynla

The number of Americans in jail for simple possession of small amounts of marijuana is probably ZERO.

Almost ALL jail time marijuana cases involve probation or bail violations, or possession by inmates, or DUI with possession, or sale to minors, or criminal cases where defendants plead down from a more serious crime to simple possession.

If you are not on probation or out on bail, if you have no outstanding warrants, and if you are not driving a vehicle, nine times out of ten the police will make you dump your bag out in the street or flush it down the toilet.


67 posted on 06/18/2009 10:24:41 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: I_Like_Spam
As far as “medicinal marijuana”, I don’t see why its even considered. Delivering an accurate, measurable dosage of a drug through smoking is impossible. In addition, the active ingrediant in marijuana- THC- has already been synthesized into pill form. The utility of medicinal marijuana is at best very, very limited.

And exactly why is an "accurate, measurable dose" necessary or even desirable?

1. Smoking is a very fast, very effective way of getting a drug into the blood stream.

2. The patient self-regulates the dose based on his own feedback.

Now, let me tell you one of the dirtiest secrets of medicine: A laboratory rat gets a better dose of medicine than you do.

When animal drug studies are done, the dosage is measured in mg of drug per kg of body weight. Each rat gets a slightly different dose depending on what that particular rat weighs.

Go to human trials and you get the same thing, a dosage per kg of body weight.

Get approved for general use, and suddenly it is "two pills for an adult, and one for a child". The adult can be a 50 kg woman, or a 150 kg man. The actual dose is known, but since it is no longer tailored to body weight, all that research data is pretty useless.

As a 90+ kg man I almost always get too little, a 50 kg woman gets too much. So much for science.

68 posted on 06/18/2009 10:33:02 PM PDT by CurlyDave
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To: byteback
I’m for legalizing it but it does pose a great dilemma. How would law enforcement test for driving while stoned? Since we have DWI laws we would have to apply some standard to marijuana. So do we have random piss sample stops now? Draw a vile of blood?

The lack of a means of determining the lack of impairment is no excuse for making a substance illegal.

Somehow all civilizations in the past 2000 years have found a way to deal with alcohol impairment despite the fact that the breathalyzer wasn't invented until 1954.

69 posted on 06/18/2009 10:38:33 PM PDT by CurlyDave
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To: kellynla

Hasn’t this guy done enough damage?


70 posted on 06/18/2009 10:43:36 PM PDT by Cymbaline (Bipartisan consensus - that's like when my doctor and my lawyer agree with my wife that I need help.)
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To: kellynla

Is this really how Congress should be spending it’s time?

Decriminalize marijuana and set a date 4 years on to review the results.

Then maybe we could talk about cutting taxes and cutting government spending.

As a show of good faith, Congress should pass a law whereby they all spend the next 4 years using the health plan they want us to use.

After 4 years, then we can review the results and talk about whether they think it’s a good system.


71 posted on 06/18/2009 10:44:36 PM PDT by airborne (Congratulations to the Stanley Cup Champions! PITTSBURGH PENGUINS!!!)
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To: BreezyDog

Pot is safer than alcohol.


72 posted on 06/18/2009 10:57:33 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: hoosierham
Well, there are drugs like PCP where people actually try to resort to cannibalism and those stories are truly gruesome.

You have crack and meth which, if hooked, turns people into zombies where they will steal from their mothers while they are experiencing permanent physical and psychological damage. There should be a war on these drugs.

There should also be a war on foreign sources of marijuana because they put our border patrol and neighborhood in danger.

As far as I'm concerned, anybody should be able to grow their own sources of pot up to a certain limit. Just as long as they smoke at home and stay at home while under the influence. That eliminates the market for pot via street gangs,

73 posted on 06/18/2009 11:44:48 PM PDT by TheThinker (America doesn't have a president. It has a usurper.)
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To: parsifal

Don’t you hate it when pots seeds get into your keyboard?


74 posted on 06/19/2009 5:01:25 AM PDT by central_va
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To: I_Like_Spam
In addition, the active ingrediant in marijuana- THC- has already been synthesized into pill form

Oh really now...have you ever tried to keep a pill down when you are puking your guts up from chemo?

75 posted on 06/19/2009 5:38:50 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: ravingnutter

Good point, I didn’t think of that.

Perhaps transdermal, IV or suppository forms of the drug can be developed for patients with extreme nausea due to chemo or other reasons.


76 posted on 06/19/2009 5:47:27 AM PDT by I_Like_Spam
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To: byteback
I’m for legalizing it but it does pose a great dilemma. How would law enforcement test for driving while stoned? Since we have DWI laws we would have to apply some standard to marijuana. So do we have random piss sample stops now? Draw a vile of blood?

I don't think it's all that difficult: if a cop smells pot smoke in a vehicle, then give the driver a blood test -- that will determine if the user has marijuana in his / her system at that moment. All a urine test can do is tell whether or not marijuana has been used by a person w/in the last 2 months or so.

77 posted on 06/19/2009 6:05:52 AM PDT by ChrisInAR (The Tenth Amendment is still the Supreme Law of the Land, folks -- start enforcing it for a CHANGE!)
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To: Danae
Just something else addictive to tax the crappola out of.

Marijuana isn't physically addictive. I oftentimes go w/o smoking pot...the supply may be low, I have other things to do, or I'm just not interested @ the time. It doesn't bother me one bit. Out of all of the ppl I have met that use marijuana, not one person has told me that they can't go w/o it.

Now w/ cigarettes, that's a totally different story -- I can speak from personal experience on that as well. B4 I quit smoking tobacco, I couldn't go for more than 2 or 3 hrs w/o having that nicotine craving hit me again. My 4 & 1/2 month long quitting process was pure hell!

78 posted on 06/19/2009 6:14:59 AM PDT by ChrisInAR (The Tenth Amendment is still the Supreme Law of the Land, folks -- start enforcing it for a CHANGE!)
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To: zeestephen
...nine times out of ten the police will make you dump your bag out in the street or flush it down the toilet.

I hope that one day soon that will become ZERO out of ten. Let my people go!

79 posted on 06/19/2009 6:19:43 AM PDT by ChrisInAR (The Tenth Amendment is still the Supreme Law of the Land, folks -- start enforcing it for a CHANGE!)
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To: Cedar
Just what this country needs...everyone at home stoned, never leaving the house.

This might actually work... people need to leave the house to vote, right?

80 posted on 06/19/2009 6:20:08 AM PDT by Rodamala
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