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 first state to decriminalize consumer 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 thing from ideas round an interstate cannabis exchange (Oregon, California, and different states have now handed payments on this), to internet hosting him at my outdated Cannabis Law and Policy course.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 year more likely than not.”
Blumenauer wasn’t at all times proper, in fact, however optimism is required in the event you’re going to battle the Warfare on Medication for over half a century. And his federal legislative accomplishments have been spectacular. In 2012, Blumenauer and former-Consultant Jared Polis launched the primary comprehensive legislative blueprint to legalize, tax and regulate hashish federally. In 2014, Blumenauer boosted the Rohrabacher-Farr modification, now often known as the Blumenauer amendment, which prohibits the Division of Justice from spending funds to intrude with state medical hashish legal guidelines. It worked.
In 2017, Blumenauer and some allies launched the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, which continues to drive hashish coverage ahead at this time. Blumenauer’s first legislative win (form of) got here in 2020, when his Marijuana Opportunity 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 Research Expansion Act was signed into legislation by President Biden. This proposal remains to be the one federal standalone marijuana reform ever enacted.
Extra just lately, Blumenauer continues to press DEA to increase transparency within the scheduling evaluation course of. He has additionally pushed the Biden-Harris Administration to deschedule cannabis entirely. 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 chunk of psychedelics laws, often known as the Visions Act, which might insulate state psilocybin applications from federal motion. That invoice would are available in as a spending appropriations rider, very similar to 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 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.
