A lifelong resident of Portland, Oregon, Congressman Earl Blumenauer is one of Oregon's innovative leaders. Raised in SE Portland, Earl attended Centennial High School. While still a college student at Lewis and Clark College, he led the campaign in Oregon to lower the voting age. He was a key player just two years later as one of the youngest legislators in Oregon's history in a landmark session for school funding, ethics reform and Oregon's groundbreaking land use laws.
As a Multnomah County Commissioner and member of the Portland City Council, Earl's innovative accomplishments in transportation with light rail, bicycles and the street car, planning and environmental programs and public participation helped Portland earn an international reputation as one of America's most livable cities.
Marijuana policy at the state level has shifted significantly in recent years as states have moved to legalize the drug for both medicinal and adult use. Unfortunately, federal marijuana policy remains rooted in the past, as all types of marijuana continue to remain illegal under federal law.
It is time for Congress and the Administration to face the facts surrounding marijuana, its use and regulation, and develop a legislative framework that accounts for the inevitable transition of marijuana policy – one that is already well under way. Federal marijuana policy should be modernized to reduce confusion, uncertainty, and conflicting government priorities. Maintaining the status quo creates an inconsistent legal environment that wastes law enforcement resources and misses out on potential tax revenues.
In 2013, Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Jared Polis co-authored a report “The Path Forward: Rethinking Federal Marijuana Policy” (updated 2017). The document reviews the history of marijuana prohibition in the United States, current conflicts between state and federal law, and outlines several opportunities to reform and clarify marijuana law at the federal level. Representative Blumenauer has also posted a FAQ on marijuana and marijuana legislation.
In November 2014, Oregonians voted to end the failed prohibition of marijuana, establishing a taxed and regulated adult use system, making it one of five states to do so. For years, Oregon has been far ahead of the federal government on marijuana policy. We were the first state to pass the decriminalization of marijuana in 1973, and one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana. Now 29 states, the District of Columbia and Guam have fully legalized medical marijuana, and 22 states have passed decriminalization laws.
This movement in states is part of a larger evolution on marijuana policy by the American people, who are rejecting the failed War on Drugs – an approach that has disrupted the lives of millions of people needlessly through failed marijuana prohibition policies. 61 percent of the American population supports full legalization and 88 percent support the legalization of medical marijuana.
Despite this, however, marijuana remains federally illegal, classified as a Schedule I substance, the same as heroin. This discrepancy between state and federal law has created a confusing patchwork of laws that trap businesses, patients, and state regulators in the middle, creating public health and safety challenges, inequities for state-legal businesses and constant uncertainty about the future. It is time for both the administration and the federal government to catch up.