by Bob Barr | Nov 19, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com Largely lost in the massive attention focused on the electoral results of 2018’s congressional voting, were the many ballot initiatives and state constitutional amendments on which votes were cast. These ranged from victims’ rights to environmental issues and voting rights for ex-felons. One of the more important of these issues, at least from a national policy perspective, were the half dozen ballot questions liberalizing state laws on marijuana. The stars may now be aligning in such way that the federal government will either follow the states and relax marijuana possession laws, or at least formally back off and leave those states that have done so, alone. As a result of the November 6 elections, 10 states and the District of Columbia now permit adult recreational use of marijuana. This reality would have been virtually unimaginable less than two decades ago when I served in the House. The trend toward legalization of adult toking, coupled with the change in the House majority from Republican to Democrat that will take place formally in two short months, significantly improves the chances that the federal government’s position – which still classifies marijuana as among the most dangerous of “controlled substances” – will actually soften. The forced departure of Attorney General Jeff Sessions – long a foe of relaxing any marijuana laws or policies, including its use for purely medicinal purposes — may provide the accelerant needed for such an event to ignite; especially since President Trump has spoken in favor of leaving the question of adult marijuana use up to the voters in the several states. It now is apparent, at least...
by Bob Barr | Nov 15, 2018 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller The latest gun control dust-up is not between the Bloomberg-funded “Everytown for Gun Safety” and the National Rifle Association; nor is it an argument between law enforcement groups on opposing sides of the issue. The most recent and ongoing dispute between Second Amendment supporters and gun control advocates pits the NRA against doctors. Shortly before the November 6 mid-term elections (from which candidates on both sides of the gun-control debate can claim victories), the NRA rebuked the American College of Physicians (ACP) for the organization’s continuing advocacy of gun-control legislation having nothing directly to do with the practice of medicine. In response, physicians associated with the ACP, along with some doctors not directly related to that group, engaged the gun-rights association in a Twitter war. The battle centered on the question of whether physicians should use their platform as medical professionals to press for political policy changes rather than to improve doctors’ ability to treat victims of gun violence. Physicians, just like members of any other profession, are certainly free to express their views on firearms-related issues or any other matter falling within the broad parameters of public policy. That some physicians have determined to do so as doctors — using the platforms available to them as doctors to advocate for gun control measures — is not a new phenomenon. Almost a quarter century ago, in 1995, the “Annuals of Internal Medicine” (the flagship publication of the ACP) declared that “firearm violence” was a “public health imperative” that had reached “epidemic proportions” and therefore measures to limit access to firearms through legislation was an appropriate responsibility of physicians qua physicians. The ACP...
by Bob Barr | Nov 14, 2018 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com In the immediate aftermath of last week’s mid-term elections, which saw the Democrats regain control of the House, many in the GOP fretted that this could portend a long-term trend, extending well beyond the 2020 cycle. However, and notwithstanding the understandable disappointment in the Republican caucus at being demoted to minority status, the “agenda” being put forth by soon-to-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her band of extreme Liberals poised to chair important House committees, might actually be a silver lining to this dark cloud. The Democratic Party’s “agenda” is, after all, no real agenda at all; unlike the last, truly historic mid-term election in 1994. The 1994 election brought the first Republican House majority in four decades; in large measure because then-Minority Whip Newt Gingrich and a small group of firebrand colleagues crafted and presented to the voters a real agenda. The “Contract with America” described for the electorate 18 issues to be voted on within 100 days of the 104th Congress, if the voters gave the GOP a majority in the House. The voters responded positively, and the new Republican majority followed through on its part of the bargain; bringing such important matters as term limits and a balanced budget amendment to the floor for open votes. That policy-driven agenda set the stage for historic action by the Republican majority in the House over the ensuing two-and-one-half years, leading in mid-1997 to a balanced federal budget for the first time since the 1960s. All this and more was accomplished with a Congress controlled by the GOP and a Democrat in the White House. And while factors relating to President...
