Congress is About to Lose Its Greatest Cannabis Advocate (Ever)

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) is retiring subsequent month. Mr. Blumenauer, or “Earl” as he typically requested to be known as, has been a number one proponent of hashish reform since 1973, when Oregon was the primary 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 through the years, on every little thing from ideas round an interstate hashish change (Oregon, California, and different states have now handed payments on this), to internet hosting him at my previous Hashish Legislation and Coverage course. One factor that caught out for me in these conversations was how optimistic Earl all the time was about federal hashish reform. When pressed, he would say “this yr extra doubtless than not.”

Blumenauer wasn’t all the time proper, in fact, however optimism is required should you’re going to combat 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 known as the Blumenauer modification, which prohibits the Division of Justice from spending funds to intervene 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 right this moment. Blumenauer’s first legislative win (kind of) got here in 2020, when his Marijuana Alternative Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act turned the primary complete legalization invoice to cross both chamber Congress. He made extra historical past in 2022, when his Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Analysis Enlargement Act was signed into legislation by President Biden. This proposal continues to be the one federal standalone marijuana reform ever enacted.

Extra lately, Blumenauer continues to press DEA to enhance transparency within the scheduling assessment course of. He has additionally pushed the Biden-Harris Administration to deschedule hashish completely. On his method 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 chunk of psychedelics laws, often known as the Visions Act, which might insulate state psilocybin packages from federal motion. That invoice would are available in as a spending appropriations rider, very similar to the Blumenauer modification does every year 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 persistently, or as laborious, as Earl Blumenauer.

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