Barney Frank (D) Boston

“The argument that federal policy should not be changed because no one actually enforces marijuana laws usually comes from older white people. No one enforces it against them, but there were more than 50,000 marijuana possession arrests in New York City last year,” Frank said. “Some say it’s a good way to go after potential criminals and cuts the murder rate. But the notion that you can justify arresting a whole lot of people for something not harmful just because a small number of them may have done something wrong is antithetical to the very notion of justice.”

If the government wants to discourage marijuana use, criminalizing it does not serve that end., Frank said. He compared marijuana to tobacco, arguing that when the adverse effects of tobacco became known, the government did not ban it. Instead, it embarked on an extensive public health campaign, highlighting the dangers of the product. Further, marijuana use is a victimless crime, in that it involves voluntary behavior and produces no “victim” who would report it to the police, which is why prohibition is ineffective. He explained that marijuana use is far less likely to harm others than the use of other legal substances.