Rep. Blumenauer: Ore. voters will legalize pot 'sooner rather than later'
PORTLAND, Ore. – The push to legalize marijuana across America took center stage in Portland Sunday.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer held a town hall meeting on marijuana reform, a topic that has gained steam since Washington and Colorado legalized possession of the drug last November.
The U.S. Department of Justice has not yet responded to those state-level changes.
Blumenauer, a long-time supporter of legalizing marijuana, says he has about two-dozen lawmakers working with him to reassess the government’s policy on pot.
The Democrat told the audience gathered at the Dishman Community Center in Northeast Portland that he wants Congress to clear up the government’s response to states that approve pot use.
“What I want to make sure is that the federal government isn’t screwing it up, getting in the way of what local voters want to do and after they decide, not interfering with how local voters want to implement it,” said Blumenauer.
The Marijuana Policy Project, a national advocacy group, plans to spend at least $700,000 in Oregon to try to convince voters that pot should be legalized in 2016. Advocates plan to target business owners, women and other groups they believe are key to turning public opinion.
“Talking to law enforcement, talking to seniors, talking to rural communities,” said group representative Roy Kaufman. “We want to come to Oregonians in 2016 with a smart, compelling, strong approach to taxing and regulating marijuana.”
Last year, Measure 80 failed by more than 110,000 votes statewide, although it passed by 75,000 votes in Multnomah County.
It takes 218 votes in the House and at least 51 in the Senate to pass a law, plus the approval of the President.
Blumenauer said he expects Oregon voters to legalize pot within the next decade. He says he plans to push legislation that will help marijuana-related businesses to secure bank loans and allow for hemp production.
“This is an area that is going to be changed,” said Blumenauer. “It’s going to be changed sooner rather than later.”
Dear Congressman Blumenauer , Promoting any aspect of legalization of marijuana embarrasses me that you represent my state. I know you're old enough to remember an old movie called ( It's a wonderful Life) and the example of how the loss of morality changes society.
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Using the movie as an example, you're playing the role of Mr. Potter.
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One can only assume that such a depraved position on marijuana can only be brought forth by but a few incentives.
1. Are you being paid off by some political splinter group to support their agenda receiving cash as a bride?
2. Are you insecure about your next election and think by lowering your standards that you will gain votes from the marijuana smoking population to secure your position?
But ultimately it doesn't matter whether it's one of these two possibilities or something else to support an issue that will definitely deteriorate society means you have sold out to evil.
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As you walk the halls of Washington I'm sure there are great men that you will pass in the hallway and from this point forward I'm sure you'll notice yourself looking at the floor in shame as they pass.Â
I cannot believe the complete lack of common sense and reason that some people exhibit. Â It never ceases to amaze me.
Prove it that it has medical value over perscription drugs Rational Voice and don't call me ignorant. I've seen first hand what pot has done and I don't like what I see. As for Drs. who perscribe it, they're probably doing it because they're using it. If it is so beneficial to people who are in pain, why won't the VA Drs. perscribe it for Vets coming home from the war zones they've been in? You probably won't find a true Dr. to perscribe it. And my first comment was my opinion and I should be entitled make it without taking flak from people like you. PS... I don't call people names if I don't agree with them.
Have you see first hand what hemp has done? Don't think soo, for the government has made a complete food source ilegal. Did you ever consider why hemp is ilegal yet legal in many other countries. As far as PROVE it has medical. PROVE OR DISPROVE IT YOURSELF GET BACK WITH YOURÂ PROOF. MR. Bdou
 @Bdou The medical debate is long done. You just don't want to acknowledge science. There is plenty of proof that marijuana is great medicine. It has been used for thousands of years without incident. I'm sorry if you have some bias against marijuana consumers, but I've got a big problem with alcohol users, and just as you don't get a say in marijuana laws, I don't get a say in alcohol laws. Marijuana was not prohibited for scientific reasons. It was prohibited to protect big business interests, and to push a racist agenda.
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For the record, I'm not calling you names -- I'm pointing out a fact. You CHOOSE to remain ignorant. That is your right, and your choice. What you don't get to do is push your ignorance off on others unchallenged simply because you "don't like" this group or that.
I'll support medical mj. What I don't support is recreational pot but if medical mj becomes legal, you'll have people out there trying to get a card thusly committing fraud. Does that make you feel better Icarus?
The Drug Enforcement Administration is trying to access private prescription records of patients in Oregon without a warrant, despite a state law forbidding it from doing so. The ACLU and its Oregon affiliate are challenging this practice in a new case that raises the question of whether the Fourth Amendment allows federal law enforcement agents to obtain confidential prescription records without a judgeâs prior approval. It should not. http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/aclu-challenging-deas-access-confidential-prescription-records-without
Ah, cannabis: Safer than alcohol, tobacco, and even caffeine -- but treated like heroin.Â
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Legalized cannabis is inevitable in Oregon. Legalizers are the majority, and opponents are quite literally dropping dead by the day.Â
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To those who don't like the idea of legal cannabis: You should start your moving preparations now, and you should probably consider going east, because the entire west coast will be legal by 2017.Â
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No matter your political background or religious belief, it is impossible to study the issues related to cannabis and remain committed to prohibition with a clean conscience. You must CHOOSE to remain ignorant in order to oppose legalization.Â
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For those that want the facts, Google Marijuana Myths. You'll be surprised.
MJ will be legal on a nationally when a corporate interest lobbies Congress with half-a-billion dollars for the right to produce and process the product and exclude the right of citizens to grow their own.  The only objection that the government has is that they don't know how to tax weed and when a corporation demonstrates a plan...and spreads a little cash "campaign contributions"...for production then it will be legal. Â
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Beware of any law that prohibits citizens from growing their own stash while enabling corporations to prepare products.
Why bother with any laws, someone finds each and every one of them offensive or just too tough to enforce. This is really getting nutty.
 @Kachina I agree. It's nutty that there were over 40,000 new laws introduced in America in the first six months of last year alone. Who could ever possibly keep up with them all? And then to have some of them be as damaging, destructive, and pointless as those in regard to marijuana -- quite clearly, our "justice system" isn't about justice.
I sure hope the voters of Oregon don't let him down.
Typical Democrat move. I sure hope the voters do not succomb to something that is being crammed down their throats. I hope they never legalize it. It's bad enough that we have medical MJ cards. And yes I've tried it a few times and the only thing it did for me was make me hungry. I did get a light buzz and then a headache. No pot for me.
 @Bdou RepublicRATS all agree: They must steal more of your money to keep spending on bad policies that have no positive effects, such as the "war against [some] drugs". The fact is that cannabis is far safer than alcohol, and has been proven to get people off of hard-core harmaceutical products. It's LEGAL, prescription medications -- substances that are so deadly dangerous they require doctor supervision to even be used -- that cause most of America's addiction problems. But you go ahead and choose to remain ignorant my friend. It's got to be so much easier than thinking for yourself.
 @BdouÂ
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So you don't like it and that is the only reason you have for not legalizing it and for opposing Medical Marijuana also? Nobody has ever forced you to smoke pot and the social cost of prohibition is greater than legalization but you just oppose it anyway. Pure genius.
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I can accept no pot for you. Why can you not accept legal access to cannabis for me .. Pot should not have to wait. Why because it would save tax dollars from day one. It whould increase tax income for the state. Would stop illegal persons from entering the US boarders while having 50 lbs of cannabis straped to their backs. It would stop the movement of cannabis through the Drug Cartels south of the boarder. Whould make it harder for the kids to buy cannabis through the Drug Cartels distrubiton networks. It is curretly just the hemp side a 300 million dollar industrie which we could be producing in the US putting Americans back to work. The plant also contains a complete set of amino acids the human body needs to build muscles. The plant through ending the prohibiation of nature could be used for many products. Henery Ford and Mr Diesel both used motors which ran on hemp fuel. Makes no sense to deny the use of a plant. Give them an inch. Them being your fellow American Citizens from all walks of life. Why should they not be allowed to use a plant some like to drink use tobaco both of which have taken many of our fellow citizens from us. I dont like spending my tax dollars on the prohibition of a plant which our govenment is not telling the whole truth about. The prohibition was created by this government not because the plant is unsafe or that it has thousand of other uses but the government wants to control its citizens and the competition in the market place. They have been doing a good job as we can see through the discord surrounding the issue. Spending more and more of your tax dollars on a war against nature that truly seems to be the slippery step we have been on for the last 75 years. Our founding fathers did just fine growing cannabis leaving this great nation in our care. Yet for the last 75 years we have turned our backs on a plant which has served man for a thousand years. I am suposed believe this government over the history of this plant and its many uses. That is also another slippery step towards becoming a sheep of this government. I sure hope the REPUBLICANS nor the DEMS fall for govenment control this is not a red or blue issue. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, which has seed in its fruit; to you it shall be for food.Let us not for get Genesis 1:29. Cannabis contains a complete set of amino acids the body needs to produce muscle. Think about why a govenment would make such a complete food source ilegal It was durning Nixon's time as a president when cannabis went to a schedule one drug. Why would a president go against the bible. Oh wait he was found guilty braking the laws of man also
@Michael Kane ......you really have too much time on your hands.
And will pot smokers' health insurance rates under Obamacare also go up 50% like cigarette smokers' soon?
 @jpkÂ
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Medical research shows that MJ isn't a health risk.
@Icarus @jpk Unless you're driving around stoned and injure/maim/or kill someone.Â
Did you see the pictures from the car accident in Bend on KATU.com today? Thanks to a completely legal drug. What are your thoughts about that.
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 @Kachina  @Icarus  @jpkÂ
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Again no correlation. There are incidental events and urban legend but no positive correlation as with alcohol.
Why smoke it? Makes more sense to use cannabis in the form of  edibles.
How much pot does Earl smoke a day? Â Too much it seems.
 @sortbait None. He claims to be one of the few Americans who have never even tried it. Stay ignorant my friend. It's got to be so much easier than thinking critically.
 @Rational Voice If you new anything about pot you wouldnt commet,  Stay ignorant, it is so much easier than thinking critically.
 @sortbait You're kinda starting to sound like a gun-grabber.Â
Probably less than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Abe Lincoln did. Know your history
 @Michael Kane They didnt smoke weed....know your history.
So what do you think Abe was talking about in that letter. Any idea.
@sortbait @Michael Kane Collected by Robbie Genner, Huffington Post "Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." - Abraham Lincoln (from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany) "Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." - Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President "Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." - George Washington, U.S. President "We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption." - John Adams, U.S. President "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana." - Jimmy Carter, U.S. President
Why are you people discussing that their are more important issues right now? Of course there are! Stick to the discussion at hand. We are not talking about fed spending or the economy or our borders. We are talking about the legalization of marijuana. The president gave us that statement already. I feel like I'm in a class room. The discussion today's class today is LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA.Â
@Joseph Del Guidice Yeah, the President wants to legalize it. Keeping the population stoned and dopey help his personal cause.
CORRECT. Although I would like to point out ending the prohibition of (nature) cannabis would reduce federal spending, improve the economy (removing cannabis money from the black market and allowing us farmes to grow hemp)and reduce the importation of cannabis through our borders by DRUG CARTELS. Amazing how many uses this plant has.Â
Of course they are going to legalize it, it will dumb down the population even more.
 @franksbeans Because nobody uses it now, is that what you're trying to say? Google Marijuana Myths -- get the facts -- please save us all from your ignorance.
 @Rational Voice  @franksbeans You need some facts about pot. Your ignorance is showing.
 @sortbait This ought to be good... please, enlighten me oh wise one! What is it that you think I don't know about cannabis? (Or, "pot" as you so ignorantly call it) Are you saying that it's NOT safer than alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine? Are you saying that it's NOT something that millions of people are already using every day? Are you saying that hemp would NOT replace thousands of the petrochemical based products we use every day with natural green alternatives? Are you saying that we NEED to lock people up for making reasonable choices that only effect themselves? Are you saying that spending more than a trillion of your tax dollars on a war against our own citizens was/is a GOOD idea?Â
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I'm dying to know -- What is it you think I don't know about "pot"?
 @franksbeans I want to be as dumb as Carl Sagan, as lazy as Michael Phelps, as poor as Steve Jobs and as unsuccessful as Willie Nelson, The Beatles or Rush.
Our founding fathers grew and used cannabis look a the great country they founded. What is dumb is the way for the last 75 years we have had a war on a plant. What is also dumb is the way the director of the DEA answers questions concerning the issue. Stating all ilegal drugs are bad. Guess tobaco is good for you and alcohol of course is not causing any problems. Â The persons who want it legal appear to have a much stronger understanding of the issue than even the director of the DEA.Â
Collected by Robbie Genner, Huffington Post "Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." - Abraham Lincoln (from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany) "Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." - Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President "Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." - George Washington, U.S. President "We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption." - John Adams, U.S. President "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana." - Jimmy Carter, U.S. President
@franksbeans Hey franksandbeans. It your beans fool. you haven't a clue.
I am thinking later, much much later.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, which has seed in its fruit; to you it shall be for food.Let us not for get Genesis 1:29. Cannabis contains a complete set of amino acids the body needs to produce muscle. Think about why a govenment would make such a complete food source ilegal.
It was durning Nixon's time as a president when cannabis went to a schedule one drug. Why would a president go against the bible. Oh wait he was found guilty braking the laws of man also!
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This has been going on for so long. Legalization seems to be almost impossible. You have to deter the DEA from lobbying against legalization. They would lose employment and funds for their fight on marijuana which has been a total failure for the last 40+years. Marijuana has been such an enigma making it so very bad for so long starting with the movie Reefer Madness since the 1937. It became a class 1 drug and since has been a hard road to change. I think it is due the hard liners both in the government and law enforcement that are convinced it is so very bad. You won't change these people. They are brainwashed. We have to wait for them to retire or die before anything will change with these law makers. Our president seems to be one of them with his "this is not the time to discuss marijuana legalization, we have a lot of more important issues that come first." He is dodging for fear he would be labeled the president who made pot legal. We have to defeat the defeatists themselves.
Also be aware when plants are confiscated the police take the whole plant even if nothing is smokable with No flowers. They weigh everything wet so the amounts are totally false! I'm fed up with law inforcement who are corrupt and do not want this to be legal because it is a threat to their jobs. The counties make their money by making deals to lessen charges. Simple, Money talks! One more thing don't talk about this not being the time to talk about this on the Federal level or at this time. NOW is the time. We have just legalized it in our neighbor state. Let's take care of this Now and then we can take care of more important violent offenders. If we legalize it people can be accountable just like alcohol, only alcohol is a dangerous addicting violent drug that has and continues to kill and disease millions. Conservative people take note. Our current laws will affect someone they know and love. They will be eating their words. S
Joke
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Washington State speaking here.
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It all makes sense now. Gay marriage
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& marijuana being legalized on the same day.
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Leviticus 20:13- ".....
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If a man lays with another man he should be stoned."
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I was just interpreting it wrong.
 @old_dollor Yes, sir, I'm about to get lectured by some of my ultraconservative Christian friends, 'cause, that's too good not to quote. Excellent.
It was durning Nixon's time as a president when cannabis went to a schedule one drug. Why would a president go against the bible. Oh wait he was found guilty braking the laws of man also!
 And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, which has seed in its fruit; to you it shall be for food.Let us not for get Genesis 1:29. Cannabis contains a complete set of amino acids the body needs to produce muscle. Think about why a govenment would make such a complete food source ilegal.