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In honor of 4/20, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) submitted to an "ask me anything" session with Reddit users on the "trees" forum, which describes itself as the "go-to subreddit for anything and everything marijuana."
There isn't much news value in the transcript, but there are a few laughs. The questions are as incisive as you might expect from the Reddit crowd:
"Are you blazing it today?"
"Where is the best, legal place to enjoy trees in Portland?"
And, "I would really like to run for public office as of right now I am 28 and a senior in high school, what can I do to start?"
Sadly, Blumenauer deigned not to respond to any of those probing queries. But he did reply to "DetectiveSnowglobe," who asked "Hey hey hey, should I smoke weed every day?"
"The beauty of our movement is individual choice, as long as you're 21 or older," Blumenauer replied.
Asked if he'd "rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?" Blumenauer responded, "As an Oregonian, I would never root against Ducks."
The latter question came from "proud Portland[er]" and cannabis industry employee, "z3phyr13," who also asked "how do you plan to 'go to bat' for Oregon should [U.S. Attorney General] Jeff Sessions try to intervene in Oregon's recreational marijuana industry?" The co-founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus was ready for that one:
An earnestly affecting exchange took place with "stonedhillbilly," who wrote of losing a child in a car crash caused by a distracted driver.
Blumenauer's response:
Of course, someone asked the longtime Oregon Congressman if he smoked weed. "No," he replied, adding that even if he did, "I don't think it matters to my constituents."
Update 7:09 pm: The Oregonian, which is majority-owned by the same company that owns Reddit, reports that Blumenauer's interlocutors included Snoop Lion, who asked what "celebs [can] do to use their voice to support legalization?"
"Snoop," Blumenauer replied, "you have already done more than you know for this effort."