Pot, Politics, Music and Humor

Last night on Air America Radio, where I'm hanging out (at least this week and next), weeknights from 11pm-1am ET, I talked about all of those things with two wonderful guests.

In the first hour, musician and songwriter Jack Tempchin joined me. He is responsible for some of the Eagles biggest hits, and recently posted a new song to his MySpace page called Light a Joint. So I called him to talk about the marijuana laws in the US... and we talked about music too.

Hear our interview by clicking here.

In the second hour, I was joined by comedian, social commentator and all around smart, funny, nice guy John Fugelsang. We started off where the conversation ended with Jack Tempchin, talking about pot... and it moved from there to a frank and often funny discussion of the day's news.

Hear my interview with John Fugelsang here.

Interestingly enough, I spoke at length last night about two bills recently introduced by Congressman Barney Frank, about which I had seen absolutely not one piece of press.

The first, introduced last week, on June 12, is H.R. 2835, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, which would make marijuana available through a doctor's prescription nationwide.

The bill, which was co-sponsored by 13 bipartisan Members of Congress at the time of introduction, would change federal policy on medical marijuana in a number of ways.

Specifically, the Act would change marijuana from a Schedule I drug, classified as having no medical value, to a Schedule II drug, which would recognize marijuana's medical efficacy and create a regulatory framework for the FDA to begin a drug approval process for marijuana. The act would also prevent interference by the federal government in any local or state run medical marijuana program.

Then yesterday, Congressman Frank introduced H.R. 2943, the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009, which would eliminate federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 3.5 ounces of marijuana, and the not-for-profit transfer of an ounce of marijuana.

I have a call in to Barney Frank's office who, when I asked why there had been no coverage of these two bills, told me that they were planning a press release sometime today. I've requested an interview with the Congressman, so hopefully will have him on the Air America show and the Radio or Not podcast sometime in the next few days.

Perhaps there is a light at the end of the joint... er... tunnel.