Barney Frank on Legalizing Pot

In a new interview with NORML, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank discusses his bill decriminalizing marijuana possession, and small non-profit sales of the drug, under federal law. He's a realistic guy: the bill is modestly worded to give it the best chance of passing, he introduced it with co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle, and he still doesn't expect it to pass. But a sensible conversation would be a start, and Americans are ready for it. A new CBS poll finds 41 percent of Americans want the drug to be fully legal.

Here are some excerpts from Frank's conversation with Esquire's John H. Richardson:

ESQUIRE: Could you tell me why you're doing it at this time? Everybody says you guys have got so much to handle right now.

BARNEY FRANK: Announcing that the government should mind its own business on marijuana is really not that hard. There's not a lot of complexity here. We should stop treating people as criminals because they smoke marijuana. The problem is the political will.

ESQ: That's my second question. There's already been a lot of change in the country. Thirteen states have decriminalized pot. What's holding up Congress?

BF: This is a case where there's cultural lag on the part of my colleagues. If you ask them privately, they don't think it's a terrible thing. But they're afraid of being portrayed as soft on drugs. And by the way, the argument is, nobody ever gets arrested for it. But we have this outrageous case in New York where a cop jammed a baton up a guy's ass when he caught him smoking marijuana.

ESQ: Why is the bill so modest? You explicitly say you're not going to overturn state laws.

BF: Because I think it's important, when you're confronting political opinions this way, to make it easier for people. This isn't for drug dealers. Although I do think there's a logic that once you've allowed people to smoke, you're going to go beyond that.

Read more about the Act to Remove Federal Penalties for Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults.