Dear Friends, I have been working on cannabis reform since 1973, and I have never felt as optimistic about our progress as I do now.  Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the MORE Act, the gold standard of cannabis reform. This bill would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level and provide restorative justice for the communities most impacted by the failed war on drugs.  Days later, the House passed my bipartisan Medical Marijuana Research Act which would make it easier for scientists to research medical cannabis. This legislation is the key to developing a good test for marijuana impairment. Thousands of people every week fail drug tests when they are not impaired, but because they had used state-legal cannabis sometime within the last month.  The House has passed the SAFE Banking Act on six separate occasions. This legislation would finally grant state-legal cannabis dispensaries access to banking services. So long as cannabis is federally prohibited, banks and credit unions are unable to serve cannabis business with financial products as simple as savings accounts and accepting credit or debit cards. Allowing the cannabis industry to access banking will be a huge step towards protecting dispensaries from being targeted for robbery.  And unlike in years past, where we faced Senate leadership that wouldn’t give us the time of day, we now have key Senate leaders who are poised to act on these key pieces: comprehensive reform, research, and banking. It is disappointing that the Senate will now delay its legislation until August, but I will continue to engage productively with Senate leaders and keep building the momentum towards ending the federal prohibition on cannabis.  I will also keep working to make the federal government a better partner by protecting state, Tribal, and territorial cannabis programs from federal interference, and seeking appropriate federal assistance in rooting out illegal growing operations that are plaguing Southern Oregon and other communities.  Tomorrow on 4/20 let’s celebrate the progress we’ve made—none of which would have been possible without your help and support.  We are closer than ever to reaping the benefits of medical marijuana, making the cannabis industry safer, and crucially, ending the failed war on drugs and reforming our criminal justice system.  Courage, Earl