Clifford Robinson is a proud resident of Portland, Oregon. Cliff played for the Portland Trail Blazers for 8 seasons, having been named an NBA All-Star and NBA Sixth Man of the Year while playing with the Blazers. Robinson ranks in the top ten in several Blazer career statistical categories. Portland is home to part of Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, which is the district represented by Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

The Uncle Cliffy team has covered Congressman Blumenauer’s pro-cannabis efforts in the past. In mid-October Blumenauer testified in a Congressional hearing in support of cannabis as a viable solution to combat the opioid epidemic. Congressman Blumenauer has been a champion of cannabis reform in the political world for a very long time, having led the effort in Oregon’s Legislature in 1973 to successfully decriminalize cannabis possession. The successful effort made Oregon the first state in the nation to decriminalize cannabis.

Congressman Blumenauer has either sponsored, co-sponsored, or strongly supported every pro-cannabis reform measure that has been introduced in Congress since he became a United States Representative in 1996. Blumenauer was recently interviewed by TMZ, and during the interview, Earl Blumenauer had something to say specifically about sports cannabis reform. Per TMZ:

“It’s much less damaging than the opioids, the painkillers, the shots, the pills … and it’s time professional sports stops punishing them but works with them.” Congressman Blumenauer says 2/3 Americans have legal access to medical marijuana — so to ban NBA and NFL players is basically treating them like “second class citizens.”

Earl Blumenauer’s endorsement of ending cannabis prohibition in professional sports is a big deal. As far as the Uncle Cliffy team is aware, he is the first member of Congress to specifically express support for cannabis reform in professional sports. Hopefully his support encourages other members of Congress to do the same, and also hopefully it is an endorsement that league officials in the NBA and NFL see and are swayed by. If fans, players (current and retired), members of sports media, and members of Congress all keep calling on the leagues to end cannabis prohibition, they will have to listen and get on the right side of history.