US Congressman and long-time cannabis advocate Earl Blumenauer has said that legalization ‘is now inevitable’ and the Biden administration ‘is listening’.
In a later final memo ahead of his departure from politics the co-founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus celebrated the recent news that the DEA is expected to approve the rescheduling of cannabis.
While stating that rescheduling is ‘not quite what we wanted’, noting that cannabis shouldn’t be scheduled at all’, he called it a revolutionary step that sends a strong message about the end of the failed war on drugs.
However, he urged both the Biden administration and wider industry not to rest on its laurels, stating that he remained committed to ‘building on this momentum to end the failed cannabis prohibition once and for all’.
“Each year, I release a memorandum outlining the path forward to end the federal prohibition of cannabis. With the DOJ’s announcement, this updated memo reflects my optimism for the path ahead and details the work that remains.”
He highlighted other key bills making their way through the legislative process as ‘long overdue’, including Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, the SAFER Banking Act, the Blumenauer-McClintock-Norton-Lee Appropriations Language, and Veterans Equal Access Act.
Referencing the looming election, he also called cannabis reform a ‘vote winner’, amid increasing speculation Biden is relying on reform to win over younger voters.
It came as New Jersey Senator Cory Booker visited Natura’s cannabis facility in Sacremento to promote a recent federal cannabis legalization bill put forward by himself and 13 other Senators including Chuck Shumer and Ron Wyden, High Times reported.
The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) was resubmitted on May 1, and seeks to legalize cannabis at the federal level while expunging past convitions.
“I’m from Newark where marijuana enforcement is disproportionately focused on low-income people, people of color, people who are suffering, people who are struggling,” Booker told facility workers.
“And we have this perverse reality in America where we have people with criminal convictions who are doing things that presidents and congresspeople and senators have admitted to doing. The hypocrisy of that is maddening.”
