Congressman to Propose Legalization of Small Quantities of Marijuana This Week

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) is preparing to introduce legislation this week which will eliminate federal penalties for possession and use of small quantities of marijuana. The bill be will be called the "Make Room for the Serious Criminals Bill."

In California and 11 other states medical marijuana is legal. Yet federal law does not recognize those laws, meaning users can be - and are - criminally prosecuted.

According to Frank, who spoke about this after being prompted by Bill Maher on Maher's Real Time show last Friday. Of course, he didn't really detail what "small" means. He was very clear that much of the reasoning behind his bill was due to the medical marijuana conflicts I outlined above.

... I now think it’s time for the politics in this one to catch up to the public. The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly, and it’s especially now – I was going to call it – you got a name for it – the “make room for the serious criminals” bill. Because you’ve got people taking up – taking up space in the jails.

Marijuana has been shown to sometimes be the only way to relieve pain among patients suffering from certain diseases, including terminal ones such as cancer. There was also a study late last year that suggested marijuana may inhibit invasive cancer growth.

What do you readers think? Watch the video, from Real Time, about 3 minutes in.