A lonely lobbyist

Jaclyn Borowski

Aaron Houston, the one full-time marijuana lobbyist on Capitol Hill, spoke to students last night during a talk sponsored by SSDP.












We’re dangerously close to marijuana legislation. Why do I say dangerously? Do any of you feel prepared?”

Aaron Houston, the only full-time marijuana lobbyist on Capitol Hill, discussed the best methods for advocating legalized marijuana and emphasized how close the movement is to succeeding in a talk last night sponsored by Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

“I knew the climate was changing, but I didn’t realize how close he feels we are to legalization,” SSDP Vice President Nyssa Bryant said. “It’s really exciting.”

As the movement continues to grow, Houston said, the possibility of legalizing marijuana is nearing reality. And more and more states are legalizing medical marijuana — Maine was the latest to join the ranks by passing a referendum to legalize medical marijuana in early November.

“The world has basically changed very recently,” Houston said. “It may be hard to tell, but something is happening in College Park. Something is happening in Maryland. Something is happening in this country. People are starting to talk.”

And the people are taking their concerns straight to the president. A survey on President Barack Obama’s website, Houston said, asked people to vote for the issues they saw as the most pressing for the country. Each of the four times the survey was conducted, legalizing marijuana was the number one choice.

Houston is working on a bill for Congress detailing how a legalized marijuana policy would realistically be implemented. Though Houston believes Obama wants decriminalization, he said he thought that it likely won’t be a first-term issue for the White House to pursue.
Houston emphasized talking to people and networking as the key to pushing the legislation.

“I just connect people and ideas,” Houston said, explaining that at least 50 percent of the work he does is not specifically marijuana lobbying, but is working on making connections.

And through people telling him secrets and dropping anecdotes in his job, Houst is convinced more people have used marijuana than the country realizes. He recounted a time, recently, when a congressman’s wife told him how eating pot brownies made her husband so paranoid that he became convinced that the police were going to burst in and catch them.

“I feel like I’m kind of a priest sometimes because people tell me their secrets because I’m the marijuana lobbyist,” he said.

Houston emphasized, however, that the people behind legalization are evolving with the issue, expanding to encompass all parties.

“This isn’t a Democrat issue or a Republican issue — it’s an everybody issue. It’s a national security issue,” he said.

And this statement has proved too true, as Houston said the biggest changing point in the movement came last week when a top Republican, who he is currently unable to name, joined their cause.

“That turned the key; it put all the pieces in place for [changing the law] to happen,” said Houston. “It was that day last week.”

But while Houston continually impressed upon students how close legalization is, he also emphasized the need for perseverance.

“You lose so many fights. You lose nine out of 10 fights,” he said. “We’re going to lose a lot of fights, we may even go backwards a little bit.”

Houston’s talk left many students inspired to get more involved in the movement to continue the fight.

“I hope that people will get involved,” said Bryant. “It doesn’t have to be something big. I just hope that people take it to heart.”

Source:diamondbackonline.com/