“Weed is from the earth. God put this here for me and you. Take advantage man, take advantage. “
-Smokey (Chris Tucker), “Friday”
Y’all, it’s Friday and I would love to smoke up. However, I try not to run afoul of the law, and I heart my bar license, so I’ll probably just soak up some [Maker's] Mark instead. My man Barney Frank is looking to change things for me, though, and I gotta give him some love for that. You see, U.S. Representatives Frank and Ron Paul are co-sponsoring House Resolution 5843, a bill that would end federal penalties for carrying up to 100 grams of marijuana, essentially carving out a special exemption from federal criminal law for medical or personal pot use.
This bill is one thing we can agree on in my politically divided household. We love to smokey. We love individual freedoms. And we love legislators who are more inclined to spend our tax dollars on education and bridges that don’t fall down than locking up drug users. I mean, really. According to CNN, every 38 seconds, a marijuana smoker is arrested in the United States, and Rep. Frank’s Web site reports that the estimated criminal justice costs of marijuana arrests are as much as $7.6 billion a year. That’s an average of over $10,000 per arrest, Jaysus help us.
Yay, Barney! And, uh, yay Ron Paul (ouch, that hurt). Just like a certain Myrtlebeachbum and her Mister, y’all are a crazy odd couple who can make sweet, sweet legislative love when you put your mind to it.
Tags: Barney Frank, Friday, Ron Paul, Wacky Tobacky
August 2, 2008 at 4:33 am
How will this impact the rampant “drug free workplace” policies in the public and private employment sectors?
August 5, 2008 at 2:58 am
Devil: I think it will have zero effect on civil laws and drug free workplace nonsense. It appears to be a no-criminal-enforcement policy only. I also doubt it will go anywhere, but I applaud the effort.
August 5, 2008 at 3:15 am
I too applaude the effort, because I always resented having to play “hall monitor” when I ran the agency. It’s just so intrusive to employees and draining of the time needed for the necessary/critical work of the agency.