Medical Marijuana: Barney Frank Introduces Federal Bill to Get DEA Out, Reschedule as Medicine
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced legislation Monday that would reschedule marijuana as a Schedule II drug and eliminate federal authority to prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal. Titled the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act (HR 2835), the bill currently has 16 sponsors and has been sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Barney Frank
"We are encouraged by the federal government's willingness to address this issue and to bring about a more sensible and humane policy on medical marijuana," said Caren Woodson, government affairs director for Americans for Safe Access. "It's time to recognize marijuana's medical efficacy, and to develop a comprehensive plan that will provide access to medical marijuana and protection for the hundreds of thousands of sick Americans that benefit from its use."
When it comes to reining in the feds, the bill would bar the use of the Controlled Substances Act or the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act for prohibiting or restricting doctors from prescribing marijuana and patients, caregivers, and co-ops or dispensaries from using, possessing, transporting or growing marijuana in accordance with state law.
The Obama administration has pledged to not use Justice Department resources to go after medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal. Still, the DEA has continued to target medical marijuana providers, prosecutors continue to file drug charges against providers acting in accord with state laws, and federal judges continue to sentence medical marijuana providers who followed state laws, but were convicted under federal drug laws.
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redditSane political action
Comment posted by Glen Stark on Mon, 06/22/2009 - 1:12pmYour thought-process is steered by anger rather than strategy or rational thought. It is also counter productive.
Rational scheduling of drugs and a sane, rational, evidence based drug policy are both desirable goals. Although they overlap, they are best considered as separate, desirable goals. Doing so makes both movements stronger.
Regardless of whether we accomplish Marijuana legalisation in the near future (I believe we will), medical marijuan should be readily available, and medical marijuna patients should be treated with dignity and respect. This is simple human compassion. It benefits society directly, in that it helps sick people get better medicine. It provides a trememendously useful, organic medicine which can be potentially free (it's ridiculously easy to grow your own marijuana if you don't have the dea raiding your yard).
It has secondary benefits which help the prohibition-repeal movement as well: It decreases the stigma attached to cannabis, and it provides a source for more hard scientific data backing up the drugs relative safety.
So instead of being pissed off because things aren't happening fast enough, help out. Try to cut out the ranting rhetoric too. It doesn't help our movement to have supporters coming across as ranting lunatics.
true/agree ... HOWEVER ...
Comment posted by sun on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 4:35pmtrue/agree ... HOWEVER ... "don't" work that way, hon ... Mr. Frank's action IS better than nothing and kudos to him! all i can figure, is that u must be kinda young? [
Medical Marijuana
Comment posted by Peyote Sky on Mon, 10/19/2009 - 11:01amIf more people would take a sabbatical from smoking and start working in a more practical way to help, we could stop a lot of suffering and prosecutions ~ "THEY" will never legalize anything ~ Because of those who have worked so hard President Obama this morning, 10/19/09, just delivered a 3 page directive to all Law Enforcment RE: Medical Marijuana
Legalize all hemp
Comment posted by David Dunn on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 5:44pmBarney Frank (D-MA) should have the cojones to ask Ron Paul (R-TX) if together they have enough cajones to introduce legislation to remove all things hemp from the Controlled Substances Act.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
— Thomas Jefferson
Still Waiting...
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 6:56pmIt's about fuckin'time, don't you think folks? Get the goddamn government out of it altogether!
Reschedule Nothing...Unschedule it
Comment posted by Marijuana Nation on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 6:56pmCannabis/Marijuana, is a medicinal herb...NOT a drug....it should have never been scheduled to begin with. What on earth is a known, criminal pedophile, Barney Frank, doing , trying to write marijuana laws? Most of our laws that are written in D.C. are written by criminal pedophiles, is it any wonder why the nation is in a shambles? The entire federal government system is a farce...abolish it, give it an abortion, flush it down the toilet and be done with it. Power to the people, we'll write our own pot laws without the influence of career pedophile criminals like Barney Franks and his ilk.
Medical Marijuana Patients
Comment posted by Tennessee Activist on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 8:48pmThe only thing wrong with today's world is to many people expect everything to fast. The "NOW," crowd is simply not aware of the process and it's easy to be frustrated. I'd love for Obama to legalize MJ now once and for all of us but it's not going to happen like that this time around. Sometimes we have to work at what we want and this time around we're going to work our butts off till we're satisfied with the results of legalization efforts. If you've got a better plan, we'd all like to hear it, otherwise complaining is just not going to help anyone. Hang in there, we'll make it in the future and we'll all be very happy when it happens.
Rescheduling . . . WTF?
Comment posted by Roger Dodger on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 4:56pmBefore you can do anything about decrimilization or legalization, you HAVE TO get medical marijuana into its proper schedule - that will take all the wind out of the DEA's sails. I would prefer that Mr. Franks would get medical marijuana into Schedule III or even Schedule IV, but at least this is a good start. Even the US Supreme Court said that Congress MUST change the scheduling before they can do anything about medical marijuana.
Perhaps you should toke up a phattie and mellow out for awhile. NOTHING happens instantly with this government. Stay in there for the long haul, but realize it going to be a LONG HAUL.
GOTO: http://www.crrh.org/octa/intro.html