Rep. Barney Frank Offers Legislation to Legalize Marijuana

The federal government should stop interfering with people's "leisure" activities, including using marijuana, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday, unveiling a bill to remove federal criminal penalties for possessing the drug. "I don't think that it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time," Frank said, according to the Washington-based Examiner. "There are a lot of things people do that I don't do, and I think that they should be free to do them. There are things that I do that other people don't do, and I ought to be free to do them." While Frank is a senior Democrat and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, he conceded that there is little chance of the bill becoming law anytime soon.

The legalization debate has been ongoing in USNews.com's Opinion section, where Peter Moskos of John Jay College of Criminal Justice argues in favor, while former Drug Czar Lee P. Brown says we should not decriminalize. Should drugs be legalized?