The Marijuana Policy Project, usually pretty reliable, seems to have understood poorly the piece of legislation, HR 2835, that Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank introduced on June 11, and I posted quickly at a time when Congress’ server was down and I couldn’t get to the primary source. It’s not a recreational legalization bill, but a Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act. It would move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II under the Controlled Substances Act, which would be important and long overdue. Other than that, it provides that the CSA does not authorize penalties or prosecution for possession, use, production or transportation of marijuana “in a State in which marijuana may be prescribed or recommended by a physician for medical use under applicable State law.”

Now that would be an important reform in that it would make it clear that patients and providers in states with medical marijuana laws are not violating federal law. But it does not extend medical marijuana authorization to states that have not approved it themselves (although one could argue that by moving marijuana to Schedule II that would be the de facto result, and that may be Frank’s real intention).

It’s true, as one of the commenters noted, that Huntington Beach’s Dana Rohrabacher is a co-sponsor on this legislation (as is Ron Paul). Those are the only two Republicans. And the proposal, while welcome, is nowhere near as bold as I had thought yesterday. I’m checking to see if Barney introduced another more ambitious bill later.

Full list of co-sponsors: Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts (for himself, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. FARR, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. PAUL, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. STARK, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. OLVER, and Ms. BALDWIN)