Link of the Day: Barney Frank’s Plan To Legalize Marijuana
Via reader Andrew, an excellent Esquire Q&A with highly controversial, much maligned but often spot on Congressman Barney Frank. The topic? Legalizing pot.
Frank is co-sponsoring, along with one fellow Democrat as well as Libertarian-leaning GOP House members Ron Paul, and Dana Rohrabacher, the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009.
The resulting interview covers a lot of important ground, addressing such issues as America’s excessively Draconian penalties for even the most minor marijuana-related offenses, as well as some of the great myths surrounding, as the kids like to call it “the reefers.”
It’s a compelling read, even if it doesn’t cover some of the most dire consequences of the senseless, neverending War On Drugs, such as the brutal killings that continue every day in the futile attempt to fight a war no one wants. Twelve more federal officers were tortured and killed in the name of this nonsense just yesterday.
You can check out the interview here.
Money quote:
BF: Here’s one thing I would say – there’s a great intellectual flaw at work here. People say, “Oh, you want the government to approve of smoking marijuana.” And the answer is, no, there should be a small number of things that the government makes illegal, but the great bulk of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business. People can make their own choices.
You tell ‘em, Congressman.
