An Oz Sighting: Senator Reynolds and the Bill That Got the Wrong Villain

"Marijuana" is not a neutral term. It was introduced deliberately in the 1930s by Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, specifically to create a racial association — to link cannabis to Mexican immigrants and Black jazz musicians and manufacture public fear. Young Oregonians know this. Anyone who has spent real time in the regulated cannabis industry knows this. When an elected official uses that word in 2026 to frame a policy intervention, it tells you something about which conversation they think they're having.

It's not the conversation Oregon's cannabis industry needs to be having right now.