We might be 33 days into the government shutdown, but the work to reform cannabis laws continues. Founding Congressional Cannabis Caucus member Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, appointed two new co-chairs to the caucus on Jan. 9 and on Jan. 22, he wrote an op-ed calling on Americans to get their representatives to join him in the caucus advancing cannabis policy reforms.<\/p>\n
However, national cannabis lobbyists warned that progress might be slow, given the fact that the government remains shutdown and tensions run high in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Oakland, California\u2019s longtime congresswoman, Rep.\u00a0Barbara Lee\u00a0(D-CA), and Rep.\u00a0David Joyce (R-OH)\u00a0recently took over leadership positions in the cannabis caucus from departing members Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and now-Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO). Rep. Joyce\u2019s appointment marks the first time a member of the caucus leadership hails from a state without legal recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud to join my colleagues in leading the effort to implement responsible, commonsense cannabis policies,\u201d said Rep. Joyce in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0announcing his new role. \u201cIt is critical that we protect the rights of the states across the country, like\u00a0Ohio<\/a>, that have already done so at the state level. The federal government\u2019s interference in this arena has stifled important medical research, interfered with doctors and patients making treatment decisions and harmed state-legal businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep.\u00a0Don Young\u00a0(R-AK) is the fourth member of the caucus and has been involved since it was\u00a0founded<\/a>\u00a0in 2017.<\/p>\n After bringing on new representatives to the cannabis caucus, Blumenauer released his call to action,\u00a0published via a blog post for<\/a>\u00a0cannabis lobbying group\u00a0NORML<\/a>. In the post, Blumenauer addresses the recent success of adding new blood to the caucus leadership and the work still left to be done.<\/p>\n \u201cAs many of you know, two years ago we launched the Cannabis Caucus, a first of its kind to create a forum for elected officials to collaborate on ways to address our outdated federal marijuana laws and two weeks ago, we were proud to add Representatives Barbara Lee and David Joyce as co-chairs to our growing group,\u201d wrote Blumenauer. \u201cBut we still have a long way to go and with your help, we will continue to expand our ranks and achieve tangible reform in this Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n Blumenauer went on to call Congress \u201cout of step with the American people on cannabis when national support for federal marijuana legalization is at an all-time high.\u201d He cited Congress\u2019s newest class as proof of this perspective. \u201cWe saw that clearly with several states moving toward legalization last November and a midterm election that resulted in the most outspoken and anti-prohibitionist group of freshman representatives in our nation\u2019s history,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Blumenauer closed by urging supporters to share the link to a\u00a0NORML-sponsored letter writing campaign<\/a>\u00a0across social media in order to encourage as many concerned citizens as possible to contact their members of Congress about working with the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.<\/p>\n NORML\u00a0Political Director Justin Strekal praised the work by Blumenauer, saying, \u201cLawmakers now look to his leadership for what\u2019s next in the policy reform space\u2026 and how the federal government [will] address federal and state tension with now 47 states being out of compliance with the Controlled Substances Act.\u201d<\/p>\n Strekal says through the work of the caucus, more and more members of Congress are now identifying as\u00a0cannabis champions<\/a>. He believes the caucus be a continually growing cycle of support that\u2019s shown great results.<\/p>\n While the positive public opinion on cannabis continues to snowball, it has nowhere to hit if the government isn\u2019t open. We asked Strekal how hard it is legalizing pot during a government shutdown, and what the future might look like when it reopens, considering the hyper-partisan tone of D.C. politics today.<\/p>\n Strekal says he believes a clean\u00a0descheduling bill<\/a>\u00a0could pass the House of Representatives in the current climate, and with a little bit of constituent-driven action, that it could happen in the Senate, too. On the House side, he believes the new changes in committee leadership have moved the right people into place to make it happen \u2014 without running into the roadblocks of the past.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re increasingly optimistic that the people\u2019s House is going to have their say,\u201d said Strekal.<\/p>\n But then, there\u2019s the bad news.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, due to the current shutdown and very tense political nature of D.C., it\u2019s unlikely we\u2019re going to see that movement in the near future. Simply because the government isn\u2019t operational at this moment,\u201d said Strekal.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Strekal said that it is difficult being a cannabis advocate in the current moment, given that \u201ceverything is on hold \u2018till the shutdown is over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take away from the fact every single day people are being arrested,\u201d he added. \u201cPeople are being taken to jail. People are going to court. People are being denied therapeutic cannabis. People are going to be continued to be discriminated against in terms of getting a job or housing or getting access to education.\u201d<\/p>\n Strekal says through the shutdown, NORML continues to work to elevate those stories with lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cSo once the government is running again and we\u2019re able to get the machine moving, [we hope] to hold hearings and to hold votes that will be successful on in the House of Representatives. And then, [again hopefully,] that will build the pressure on the Senate to take up the issue and force Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham to hold a hearing and force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n Strekal expects the first shot at reform to come through the upcoming appropriations process. He also doesn\u2019t expect any hearings until April, but he\u2019s also not totally sure the government will be open by then. Here\u2019s to crossing our fingers and leaving voicemails for our representatives until then.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, have you contacted your member of Congress about cannabis policy reform?<\/p>\n The post The Cannabis Caucus Works Through the Government Shutdown<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
We might be 33 days into the government shutdown, but the work to reform cannabis laws continues. Founding Congressional Cannabis Caucus member Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, appointed two new co-chairs to the caucus on Jan. 9 and on Jan. 22, he wrote an op-ed calling on AmericansContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,7252,83,1348,1074,1493,7149,146,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32326,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32325\/revisions\/32326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Call to Arms, or Keyboards<\/h4>\n
NORML Weighs In on the Government Shutdown<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: The Cannabis Caucus Works Through the Government Shutdown<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"