In an exit interview of sorts, longtime Oregon congressman and cannabis champion Earl Blumenauer strongly implied that if the Biden reelection campaign were smart, it would wrap both arms around the marijuana legalization ballot measure in Florida.
Blumenauer, who founded the Congressional Cannabis Caucus in 2017 and has reliably been a marijuana reform champion in Washington, D.C., announced last year that he wouldn’t be seeking reelection this coming November. But he told reporters on Friday that he’s still going to push Democratic candidates and the party at large to get federal reform accomplished this year, including the proposed rescheduling of cannabis to Schedule III.
That includes, he said, urging any and all who will listen that marijuana legalization is a winning political issue.
“If I were Joe Biden, trying to get right with young voters, particularly with young voters of color, and to atone for being on the wrong side of the failed War on Drugs, this is the issue to champion. In almost every state where cannabis legalization has been on the ballot, it passes overwhelmingly, often outperforming the same politicians who were reluctant to embrace it,” Blumenauer said at the outset of his prepared remarks.
“There is no longer any risk for anyone embracing full cannabis legalization. To the contrary, Joe Biden himself owes his (2020) victory in Arizona to the young voters who turned out en masse for a ballot measure to legalize cannabis, where it passed…
