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Congressman Barney Frank—a staunch marijuana rights supporter—announces his retirement
 

When Congressman Barney Frank announced in November that he planned to retire at the end of his term, everyone from his political allies wasted no time making their reactions known.

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren called him “a fierce champion of the little guy in a town where the big guys hire armies of lobbyists.” Fellow Massachusetts Congressman and Democrat Ed Mar

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Congressman Barney Frank—a staunch marijuana rights supporter—announces his retirement

 

When Congressman Barney Frank announced in November that he planned to retire at the end of his term, everyone from his political allies wasted no time making their reactions known.

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren called him “a fierce champion of the little guy in a town where the big guys hire armies of lobbyists.” Fellow Massachusetts Congressman and Democrat Ed Markey tweeted: “Congressman Barney Frank is an historic figure, a legislative giant, a voice for the voiceless. He will be missed.”

But few constituency groups were as saddened by Frank’s departure—or as effusive in their praise for the man—as America’s medical marijuana community, for whom the congressman was a fierce friend and supporter. For years, Frank has been an outspoken critic of federal rules that make life tougher for the average patient or recreational user.

“Today, Rep. Barney Frank, the undisputed leader of marijuana policy reform in Congress since MPP’s founding in 1995, has announced his retirement,” the Marijuana Policy Project stated in a press release. “Come 2013, we will be without his courageous willingness to openly oppose irrational marijuana laws across the board.”

“Marijuana and larger drug policy reform will lose a champion in Congress,” noted the Drug Policy Alliance. “His seat may remain Democratic, but there are few Democrats who have been as good as Barney Frank when it comes to trying to end the drug war.”

Frank, 71, has served in the House of Representatives since 1982, when he won the seat vacated by a Republican Roman Catholic priest who resigned after Pope John Paul II called on all priests to leave elected offices. His championing of progressive causes made him a prime target for conservative opponents, Idaho Congressman Larry Craig among them. When a scandal arose over Frank’s hiring of a male prostitute as a personal aide, Craig led the charge to have Frank censured and ousted. A congressional investigation cleared Frank of allegations that he used public funds in paying for sex, but found that he used his influence to fix the aide’s parking tickets, and reprimanded him. In the midst of the scandal, Frank publicly disclosed he was gay.

Twenty years later, Frank would accuse Craig of hypocrisy after Craig was arrested for lewd conduct—the congressman was accused of soliciting gay sex in a public bathroom.

In 2001, Frank wrote House Resolution 2592—the State’s Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, which would have prevented the federal government from using its powers to nullify state compassionate-use programs. Since 2003, he has voted in favor of the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment, a bill—introduced repeatedly by ultra-conservative lawmaker Dana Rohrabacher—that would prevent federal prosecution of qualified medical cannabis patients.

That willingness to reach across the aisle in the name of drug policy reform was not new for Frank—for years, he’d been hectoring his Democratic colleagues for their complicity in the War on Drugs.

“He’s always been a pragmatist,” says Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML in Washington, D.C. “In the 1990s, when liberals and Democrats were just as responsible as some conservatives for the War on Drugs, he called out his colleagues for drinking the Kool-Aid, saying that everything they were doing to fix this supposed problem was only causing greater problems from the standpoint of civil liberties, racial disparity among those arrested and incarcerated, the use of the military and the destabilization of our borders.

“These were all things in which Barney was very prescient 20 years ago. As well-intended as these laws for a drug-free America were and even though dyed-in-the-wool liberals supported them, he appreciated the free market and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be better for the government to recognize the free market and get some benefits from these things through taxation and regulation?’”

Frank’s positions on marijuana issues went beyond support for medical cannabis patients—he also advocated outright legalization for recreational use. He introduced the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008—a bill that would have lifted federal penalties for small quantities of the drug had it not died in committee. He introduced it again in 2009, and it languished without a vote for two years before being declared dead.

He also championed other reforms related to the War on Drugs, including lifting the federal prohibition on industrial hemp, eliminating sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine convictions, and using federal funds for needle-exchange programs to reduce the transmission of HIV and hepatitis.

“Barney is someone who, long ago, said that one of the great misnomers is to call federal prohibition legislation the Controlled Substances Act,” says St. Pierre. “It’s the opposite of that. The fact that kids can access marijuana more readily than beer is a powerful indication that prohibition has failed. He said it ought to be called the Uncontrolled Substances Act. Everything flows from that wit and wisdom—he’s the one who identified that a ‘drug-free America’ is an absurd concept. There’s no such thing. Hoping for a drug-free American when the country is one of the most addled in the world is asking a lot.”

Frank’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The congressman will leave office when his term expires in 2013.

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