[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9928]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in June the Global Conference on Drug Policy, 
a 19-member group that included former U.N. Secretary General Kofi 
Annan, Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George Schultz and Paul 
Volcker said that the drug war was a failure, that it needed to be 
readdressed with new priorities, and suggested that this country get 
out of the Federal marijuana possession business.
  It is for that reason and others that I will be joining today with 
Congresspeople Ron Paul, John Conyers, Barney Frank, Jared Polis and 
others to introduce a bill to get the Federal Government out of 
possession of marijuana and into interstate and international shipments 
of marijuana and allowing the States to decide, like they do with 
alcohol, how they should deal with marijuana. Better they should deal 
with it as a health policy and not a criminal policy and not stigmatize 
young people for life with marks on their record that might deny them 
employment and taking police officers' work away from violent crimes, 
where they should be better be used.

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