On April 17 2008 US Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced two bills addressing the federal penalties for marijuana possession and the use of medical marijuana. The first decriminalization bill introduced in Congress for the last 24 years.

The first bill HR5843, co-sponsored by Reps, Ron Paul (R-TX) and William Lacy (D-MO) would eliminate all existing federal penalties including arrest, incarceration and fines that prohibit the possession and personal use of less than 100 grams of marijuana.

According to Congressman Frank “It is poor law enforcement to keep on the books legislation that establishes as a crime something in which society does not seriously wish to prosecute.” He then followed up by saying, “Having federal law enforcement agents engaged in the prosecution of people who are personally using marijuana is a waste of scarce resources better used for serious crimes.”

A national poll in Oct. 2007 conducted by CNN found that 40 percent of those surveyed favored possession of small quantities of marijuana, while 70 percent thought that offenders should be fined but not jailed.

There are currently 12 states that have passed laws decriminalizing marijuana for personal use:: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon.

In the other bill authored by Franks, HR 5842, cosponsored by Reps. Paul, Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Sam Farr (D-CA), would force the DEA and other federal authorities to respect states’ current laws on medicinal cannabis and end DEA raids on facilities distributing medical marijuana legally under state law.

“When doctors recommend the use of marijuana for their patients and states are willing to permit it, I think it's wrong for the federal government to subject either the doctors or the patients to criminal prosecution,” Frank said. “The norm in America is for the states to decide whether particular behaviors should be made criminal.”

Marijuana Facts:*

60,000 individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion per year.

REFERENCE: Marijuana Arrests and Incarceration in the United States. 1999. The Federation of American Scientists' Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin.

Taxpayers annually spend between $7.5 billion and $10 billion arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations. Almost 90 percent of these arrests are for marijuana possession only.

REFERENCE: NORML. 1997.

The state of California saved nearly $1 billion dollars from 1976 to 1985 by decriminalizing the personal possession of one ounce of marijuana, according to a study of the state justice department budget.

REFERENCE: M. Aldrich and T. Mikuriya. 1988.

New Mexico's 2001 state-commissioned Drug Policy Advisory Group determined that marijuana decriminalization “will result in greater availability of resources to respond to more serious crimes without any increased risks to public safety.”

REFERENCE: New Mexico Governor's Drug Policy Advisory Group. 2001.

Marijuana arrests have more than doubled since 1991, while adult use of the drug has remained stable. During this same period, the number of arrests for cocaine and heroin fell by approximately 33 percent.

REFERENCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2000.

Police arrest more Americans per year on marijuana charges than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

REFERENCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2001.

Marijuana violations constitute the fifth most common criminal offense in the United States.

REFERENCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2000.

More than 734,000 individuals were arrested on marijuana charges in 2000. Eighty-eight percent of those arrested were charged with marijuana possession only.

REFERENCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2001.

Almost 5 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana since 1992. That's more than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington DC and Wyoming combined.

REFERENCE. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to editors of the prestigious Lancet British medical journal: “The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. … It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat … than alcohol or tobacco.”

REFERENCE:Deglamorizing cannabis 1995.

According to a 1999 federally commissioned report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM), “Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications.”

REFERENCE: National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (IOM). 1999.

The National Academy of Sciences further found, “There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.”

REFERENCE: National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (IOM). 1999.

More than 76 million Americans have admittedly tried marijuana. The overwhelming majority of these users did not go on to become regular marijuana users, try other illicit drugs, or suffer any deleterious effects to their health.

REFERENCE: Combined data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1996.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 35 percent of adults admit to having tried marijuana. Of these, only 5 percent have used marijuana in the past year, and only 3 percent have used marijuana in the past month. According to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.”

REFERENCE: President Jimmy Carter: Message to Congress, August 2, 1977

Convicted marijuana offenders are denied federal financial student aid, welfare and food stamps, and may be removed from public housing. Other non-drug violations do not carry such penalties. In many states, convicted marijuana offenders are automatically stripped of their driving privileges, even if the offense is not driving related.

REFERENCE: Section 483, Subsection F of the Higher Education Act of 1998.

Under federal law, possessing a single marijuana cigarette or less is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine, the same penalty as possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine or crack.

REFERENCE: J. Morgan and L. Zimmer. 1997.

In several states, marijuana offenders may receive maximum sentences of life in prison.

REFERENCE: Normal

A recent national study found that blacks are arrested for marijuana offenses at higher rates than whites in 90 percent of 700 U.S. counties investigated. In 64 percent of these counties, the black arrest rate for marijuana violations was more than twice the arrest rate for whites.

REFERENCE: J. Gettman. 2000. The NORML Foundation: Washington, DC.

*Combined fact information above from Mike Gravel 08

A 2002 Time/CNN poll found 80 percent of respondents support the legalization of medical marijuana.

There are currently 12 states that have laws protecting medical marijuana patients from prosecution: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

To date the DEA continues to raid medical marijuana dispensaries operating in these states, enforcing the war on drugs , free Americans.

VIEW POINT:

The first time I knowingly violated the law and smoked marijuana was in 1967… and yes I inhaled. At that time here in California the penalty for possession of even a seed was 5 to life.

Our trusted government back then proved in laboratory studies that “marijuana turned otherwise normal human beings into psychotic lunatics that were capable of suicide and other acts of violence without just case or provocation.”

We've come a long way !

Demand the immediate release of all people serving time for possession of marijuana , especially life sentences.

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