Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) is retiring next month. Mr. Blumenauer, or “Earl” as he often asked to be called, has been a leading proponent of cannabis reform since 1973, when Oregon was the first state to decriminalize user amounts of the substance. Blumenauer was a brand new face in the Oregon House of Representatives at that time, and he has been a vocal proponent of cannabis reform ever since.
I was lucky enough to work with Blumenauer and his office over the years, on everything from concepts around an interstate cannabis exchange (Oregon, California, and other states have now passed bills on this), to hosting him at my old Cannabis Law and Policy course. One thing that stuck out for me in those conversations was how optimistic Earl always was about federal cannabis reform. When pressed, he would say “this year more likely than not.”
Blumenauer wasn’t always right, of course, but optimism is required if you’re going to fight the War on Drugs for over half a century. And his federal legislative accomplishments have been impressive. In 2012, Blumenauer and former-Representative Jared Polis released the first comprehensive legislative blueprint to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis federally. In 2014, Blumenauer boosted
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