Congress is About to Lose Its Biggest Hashish Advocate (Ever)


Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) is retiring subsequent month. Mr. Blumenauer, or “Earl” as he usually requested to be referred to as, has been a number one proponent of hashish reform since 1973, when Oregon was the first state to decriminalize person quantities of the plant. Blumenauer was a model new face within the Oregon Home of Representatives at the moment, and he has been a vocal proponent of hashish reform ever since.

I used to be fortunate sufficient to work with Blumenauer and his workplace over time, on every part from ideas round an interstate hashish change (Oregon, California, and different states have now handed payments on this), to internet hosting him at my outdated Hashish Regulation and Coverage course. One factor that caught out for me in these conversations was how optimistic Earl at all times was about federal hashish reform. When pressed, he would say “this yr extra doubtless than not.”

Blumenauer wasn’t at all times proper, in fact, however optimism is required when you’re going to battle the Warfare on Medicine for over half a century. And his federal legislative accomplishments have been spectacular. In 2012, Blumenauer and former-Consultant Jared Polis launched the primary complete legislative blueprint to legalize, tax and regulate hashish federally. In 2014, Blumenauer boosted the Rohrabacher-Farr modification, now often called the Blumenauer modification, which prohibits the Division of Justice from spending funds to intrude with state medical hashish legal guidelines. It labored.

In 2017, Blumenauer and some allies launched the Congressional Hashish Caucus, which continues to drive hashish coverage ahead as we speak. Blumenauer’s first legislative win (type of) got here in 2020, when his Marijuana Alternative Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act grew to become the primary complete legalization invoice to cross both chamber Congress. He made extra historical past in 2022, when his Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Analysis Growth Act was signed into regulation by President Biden. This proposal continues to be the one federal standalone marijuana reform ever enacted.

Extra just lately, Blumenauer continues to press DEA to improve transparency within the scheduling overview course of. He has additionally pushed the Biden-Harris Administration to deschedule hashish totally. On his means out, he continues to induce the Administration to embrace the political advantages of hashish reform, repeatedly making the case to cupboard secretaries. He additionally continues to push:

Blumenauer even discovered time to sponsor a bit of psychedelics laws, often called the Visions Act, which might insulate state psilocybin applications from federal motion. That invoice would are available as a spending appropriations rider, very like the Blumenauer modification does annually for hashish.

There have been different distinguished hashish advocates in Congress over the numerous years, from legacy stalwarts like Bernie Sanders to “advanced” politicians like Kamala Harris. However nobody else has been there as lengthy, or fought as constantly, or as exhausting, as Earl Blumenauer.

When hashish is federally legalized, we should always keep in mind the relentless advocacy and imaginative and prescient of the rep from Oregon’s third District. Earl Blumenauer is a real hashish champion.

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