Ron Paul, Barney Frank Introduce Bill to End Pot Prohibition

[Zoooma]

Erik Hayden – Thu Jun 23, 8:36 am ET


The unlikely duo of Ron Paul and Barney Frank have unveiled legislation that would end the federal government's prohibition of marijuana and leave the legalization issue up to individual states. As they've said already, "this is not a legalization bill," according to a Frank spokesperson via The Wall Street Journal. Instead, it's an attempt to reconcile the illegality of the drug under federal law with the 16 states who have already made medical marijuana legal. The House bill is being deemed the "the first bill ever introduced in Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition," by the Marijuana Policy Project, a group lobbying to make the drug legal. At Reason, Mike Riggs called up an MPP spokesman who parsed the bill's chances of being passed this way: "It's definitely going to get a serious debate, probably more in the media than on the floor of the House...But I think it needs to be debated on the floor."

Ron Paul, Barney Frank Introduce Bill to End Pot Prohibition - Yahoo! News

 

[Blayz]

Excellent. It's so rarely I see anything coming out of US politics that I approve of.

 

[Vasallus]

Eh - maybe this is a good idea. All the pot heads will gravitate to the states where it's legal, and I can avoid going there.

 

[Douger]

Paul and Frank are hardly an "unlikely duo". They work together quite often on legislation to support liberty.
Sure they're different in their personal lives, but let's be honest, no two people are ever alike.

 

[EdwinWillers]

Meh - the "war on drugs" has been little more than a draft for our prison system. It's done exactly what prohibition did in the early 20th century, and worse; we not only have organized crime, we have whole cartels exponentially worse and infinitely more organized than the mafia - and a black market whose creepy tentacles reach into virtually every neighborhood in our nation.

I don't condone drugs or their use, but making something which is fundamentally nothing more than a vice illegal is, and always has been 1) impossible to curtail, and 2) an invitation to the sort of organized crime lords willing to risk the law to provide at tremendous profit a vice to people who will engage in the vice whether it's legal or not.

We might as well have the FDA require the posting of pictures of dead gang members on pot and coke bags. It'd add one more "weapon" in the war on drugs with which we could prosecute violators who ignored that law too.

The legal system is not the proper weapon to wield against vice.

 

[Douger]

The legal system is not the proper weapon to wield against vice.

QFT.

Meh - the "war on drugs" has been little more than a draft for our prison system.

Unfortunately, what you've said is so true it makes my skin crawl. I think it's actually intended to be just what you said.

 

[EdwinWillers]

QFT.

Unfortunately, what you've said is so true it makes my skin crawl. I think it's actually intended to be just what you said.

Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me.

It's little different than the war on tobacco and the asinine thing the FDA did this week.

I don't get it - alcohol is legal - though the war on it has taken a different turn such that while legal to purchase and consume, it's becoming more and more difficult to avoid increasingly various prosecutions for being under its influence. Tobacco is legal - though the war on it is leading to nearly the same ends as with alcohol. And drugs are illegal - though the war on it is demonstrably ineffective and actually spawns worse outcomes than their consumption ever could.

Either way - legality or illegality, the government just seems to keep tightening its noose on us and continues to find reasons for expanding their control over our lives. I dunno - the whole thing just reeks if you ask me...

 

[Zoooma]

the "war on drugs" has been little more than a draft for our prison system.

I think it's actually intended to be just what you said.

Come on, dude, you really believe people sat around a table and decided the war on drugs will be a good way to fill prisons with non-violent offenders?

 

[EdwinWillers]

Come on, dude, you really believe people sat around a table and decided the war on drugs will be a good way to fill prisons with non-violent offenders?

No, not at all. I'm only saying the EFFECT has been little more than that. That's all. Though it wouldn't surprise me either.

 

[Zoooma]

Sure that's the effect but Douger claims that was the intention.

 

[EdwinWillers]

Such an intention isn't out of the realm of possibility (dunno) - though I think it's much more likely there's been quite a bit of... opportunism on the part of the government ever since... iykwim

 

[Douger]

Come on, dude, you really believe people sat around a table and decided the war on drugs will be a good way to fill prisons with non-violent offenders?

There is an enormous amount of lobbyist pressure to keep the war on drugs going.
Prisons are HUGE business to the point that judges have been caught taking bribes to put people in prison.
Look at the outcry whenever there's talk of releasing non violent prisoners or closing down minimum security prisons. Often a major topic is the economic value of the prison to the area, and the jobs it provides.

So yes, I believe that people do sit around tables, and think of ways to keep prisons full.

We either believe that, or we must believe that the multi billion dollar war on drugs and accompanying prison/industrial complex, with far more prisoners, and economic value mind you, than ANY other country, is simply the result of a bunch of idiot do gooders who've innocently bumbled their way into this situation.

 

[Zoooma]

Such an intention isn't out of the realm of possibility (dunno) - though I think it's much more likely there's been quite a bit of... opportunism on the part of the government ever since... iykwim

Discovering a planet with Ewoks on it isn't out of the realm of possibility either, or that there really are aliens at Area 51.

Look, I hardly trust our dysfunctional, corrupt, dishonest government but for them to say, "Let's keep this war on drugs going so we can keep our prisons filled" just seems ludicrous to me. I do give our government some credit. With prison overcrowding and taxpayers funding prisons, with the horrible way America looks to the rest of the world for having so many people in prison, what would be to gain? Additionally, who, who has been a member of Congress, has ever even hinted that this conspiracy might be taking place?

It is difficult for me to accept that the legalization of marijuana would mess up more kids than alcohol and illegal marijuana already does. But I agree with what you said --"the legal system is not the proper weapon to wield against vice"

When it comes to the damage done, alcohol will always be a trillion times worse than pot.

 

[Ringo84]

Good news! It's past time that marijuana was legalized.
Ringo

 

[Zoooma]

So yes, I believe that people do sit around tables, and think of ways to keep prisons full.

Evidence of this? That might be your belief but your belief doesn't make it so.

 

[EdwinWillers]

Discovering a planet with Ewoks on it isn't out of the realm of possibility either, or that there really are aliens at Area 51.

Luke Skywalker found one

Look, I hardly trust our dysfunctional, corrupt, dishonest government but for them to say, "Let's keep this war on drugs going so we can keep our prisons filled" just seems ludicrous to me. I do give our government some credit. With prison overcrowding and taxpayers funding prisons, with the horrible way America looks to the rest of the world for having so many people in prison, what would be to gain? Additionally, who, who has been a member of Congress, has ever even hinted that this conspiracy might be taking place?

I don't think the possibility is something reducible to a premise as simple as that, but there have been allegations for years about the government's (or some agencies in the government) illicit involvement in the drug war to achieve certain other political goals. Iran Contra, the Kuomintang, Panama... It's not something I know enough about to debate certainly, but neither do I believe there aren't some in government who can or have at least taken advantage of the drug war for either their own political or personal purposes. Such is not at all illogical to assume, do you think?

It is difficult for me to accept that the legalization of marijuana would mess up more kids than alcohol and illegal marijuana already does. But I agree with what you said --"the legal system is not the proper weapon to wield against vice"

When it comes to the damage done, alcohol will always be a trillion times worse than pot.

I agree - particularly pot. It's certainly not the evil it's been advertised to be. And there are other methods for stigmatizing its use that don't require its governmental prohibition

 

[Douger]

Evidence of this? That might be your belief but your belief doesn't make it so.

Yeah, massive rackets don't just "poof" create themselves. Nor are they created by cute, bumbling politicians, industry leaders, and bureaucrats, that try so adorably hard but just can't keep themselves from creating and maintaining the world's largest and must lucrative prison system.
"Oh gosh darn it, we just got rich and re-elected again."

 

[craigerNY]

Come on, dude, you really believe people sat around a table and decided the war on drugs will be a good way to fill prisons with non-violent offenders?

It may not have been drafted with that intent but it is certainly perpetuated with that intent. Here in NY we have some of the most draconian drug laws referred to as "the Rockefeller Laws". Every time those laws come up for revision one of the largest unions in the state lobbies against loosening those laws. That union is the New York State prison guard's union.

Care to guess why?

 

[citizenthom]

Come on, dude, you really believe people sat around a table and decided the war on drugs will be a good way to fill prisons with non-violent offenders?

One of the arguments law enforcement advances for marijuana prohibition is that it gives them the ability to arrest "undesirables" at their discretion when they know they're up to something but can't figure out what.

So, yes.

 

[Umaro]

It does strike me as very interesting that despite all the disagreements around here, nearly everyone seems to be in favor of pot decriminalization or legalization. Seems we do have some things in common, and if it's that accepted by the general population, why is it taking so long to even talk about legally accomplishing?