The conversation found its way to marijuana legalization which led to Barney Frank calling out the hypocrisy of most of his conservative colleagues.

“It’s a great embarrassment to the conservatives,” said Frank, “They want to tell people who they can have sex with. Come on, all this is big government! Who can I have sex with? Who can I marry? What can I read? What can I smoke? You guys, on the whole — not all of you — but the conservatives are the ones who intrude on personal liberty there.”

The debate got heated between Frank and George Will. “I mean, personal liberty, if someone wants to smoke marijuana who’s an adult, why do you want to make them go to jail?” Frank questioned.

“I need to know more about whether it’s a gateway drug to other drugs, I need to know how you’re going to regulate it,” George Will replied.

“Anything is a gateway to anything,” Representative Frank shot back, “That’s the slippery slope argument which is a very anti-libertarian argument. The fact that if somebody is doing something that’s not in itself wrong, that it might lead later on to something else then stop the something else. Don’t lock them up for smoking marijuana.”

Will defended himself claiming, “What you’re calling a cop-out, I’m calling a quest for information.”

“How long’s it going to last, George?” Frank asked, “We’ve been doing this for decades.”

Watch the clip below:

You can read more coverage of this story here and here.

After a decidedly negative installment last week, we bring you good news! Our stories this week include a new Gallup poll that shows over 50% of Americans support marijuana legalization for the first time ever and one of the largest physicians’ groups in the country calls to legalize and regulate cannabis.

Be sure to tune in to NORMLtv each Thursday afternoon to catch up on the latest marijuana news. Subscribe to NORMLtv or follow us on Twitter to be notified as soon as new content is added.

This Week: a congressman calls upon Drug Czar Kerlikowse to reschedule marijuana, per se THC limits for drugged driving stall out in Colorado, and the biggest marijuana rally on the east coast is about to commence.

Be sure to tune in to NORMLtv each Thursday afternoon to catch up on the latest marijuana news. Subscribe to NORMLtv or follow us on Twitter to be notified as soon as new content is added.

Be sure to tune in to NORMLtv each Thursday afternoon to catch up on the latest marijuana news. Subscribe to NORMLtv or follow us on Twitter to get notified as soon as new content is added.

Don’t miss out on our previous content including a new PSA, Willie Nelson supporting HR 2306, and coverage from DC’s Drug War Victims Vigil.

If states were allowed to experiment with models of decriminalization and legalization they would be able to re-prioritize law enforcement to more effectively combat violent crime. Every 12 seconds a house is burglarized in the United States, with only an estimated 13 percent of these criminals ever being brought to justice. Meanwhile, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 35 seconds in this country. The process of which can take a police officer off of the street for hours. With 1.3 million violent crimes and 9.3 million property crimes being committed annually, you have to ask yourself:

Do you know where your police are?

Subscribe to NORMLtv for the latest updates or follow us on Twitter.

NORML has launched a bill specific Facebook page, where you can keep up to date on all the latest information. It can be accessed here. You can also utilize our Take Action Center to contact your elected officials and urge them to support HR 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, here.

Subscribe to NORMLtv or follow us on Twitter to stay posted on all the latest video content coming from NORML, including much more on this important legislation.

Subscribe to NORMLtv and visit NORML’s Facebook page for announcements regarding future ‘Ask NORML’ episodes. Stay tuned later this week to hear Keith discuss other popular defense strategies, including the constitutionality argument and right to privacy.

Get active; get NORML!

You can now follow NORMLtv on Twitter for up to the minute alerts on new content and community engagement.

Sure, tens of millions of Americans will be hunkering down in front of their television sets with friends and family tomorrow to ostensibly watch the Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, but as we all know the day of the Super Bowl is America’s showcase for the most expensive and often creative commercial television advertisements of the year.

That’s all fine and dandy, but how much cooler is NORML’s first ever SuperBOWL Pro-Marijuana Law Reform Ad Contest? Heh?! Forget the painfully boring and tedious eight hours of Pre-SuperBowl television programming…watch and share all of these great pro-marijuana law reform ads.

$10,000 in cash prizes and NORML swag is up for grabs for the most creative pro-marijuana law reform ad—and YOU and your friends are the judges to determine this year’s winners.

Starting in September, NORML launched our third annual ‘NORML Ad Contest’, and after culling through hundreds of submissions, NORML’s staff and members of the board of directors recently narrowed the field to the top #25 videos for consideration in our first-ever online poll that will determine the contest’s winners.

Get This Contest Dug on Digg!
Please, tell all your like-minded friends, family and co-workers about NORML’s Ad Contest and encourage them to 1) vote once for their top three choices and 2) join NORML!

Voting online for the winners will last one week and end at midnight (PST), Sunday, February 7, 2009.

There is a terrific variety of videos, artistic creativity and passion for marijuana law reform represented in these top #25 contest submissions, and I want to personally thank the hundreds of NORML supporters who submitted videos and flash animations into NORML’s ad contest for consideration.

Advice for watching and judging NORML Ad Contest Videos: Mindful that you can vote one time and only choose your top three picks for winners, my recommendations are to watch the videos a number of times this week—possibly in different states of consciousness—and then hone in on your top three video choices for NORML’s best pro-marijuana reform ads. Also, for maximum viewing pleasure, when watching YouTube-based videos, it is best that the video first load entirely before viewing is initiated.

Like last year’s winning ad, and because of the generous financial support of NORML’s members, this year’s winning ad(s) will air in selected, local television markets in the United States, including President Obama’s new neighborhood here at the end of 16th Street, in the northwest section of Washington, D.C.*

Thanks again to this year’s contestants for standing up for what is right and for the many online voters who’ll pick this year’s winning pro-marijuana ad contest video or flash animation.

*Subject to local cable providers accepting NORML’s advocacy ads