by Michelle Rutter, Government Relations Coordinator

As the year draws to a close, many of us in the cannabis industry are heading to Las Vegas for our annual trip to talk all things cannabis.

On November 11th, NCIA will be celebrating our fifth anniversary as the national voice for responsible cannabis businesses at a luxe banquet at the LiNQ Hotel + Casino, aptly themed “Looking Back, Moving Forward.” We’ll be taking a look back at how far we’ve come together in preparation for the hard work still ahead, while honoring some of the industry’s greatest champions on Capitol Hill. Las Vegas representative Dina Titus (D-NV) will give welcoming remarks to our guests.

To celebrate the progress that the cannabis industry has made, NCIA annually names a member of Congress as the recipient of our 2015 Cannabis Industry Legislative Leadership Award. Winners in prior years include true visionaries and cannabis champions Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Runners-up and “Honorary Legislative Leaders” of 2015 for the award this year included Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA). This year, NCIA has chosen to name Rep. Barbara Lee of California as the recipient of the 2015 Legislator of the Year Award.

Representative Barbara Lee is currently serving her ninth term in Congress as the representative for California’s 13th district. The district consists of the east San Francisco Bay Area, including Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont, and San Leandro. The Congresswoman is a member of the Democratic Party and is the first woman to represent her district. She currently serves on the Appropriations Committee and on the Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, in addition to being the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

As a leader on issues that span both the social and economic spectrum, Representative Lee has long been a vocal supporter of the cannabis movement. In the 113th Congress, Rep. Lee sponsored the States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act, which would have exempted real property from civil forfeiture under the Controlled Substances Act due to medical marijuana-related conduct that is authorized by state law.

Currently, during the 114th Congress, Representative Lee has continued to be a champion for the cannabis industry on Capitol Hill. She is a co-sponsor of the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act of 2015 — NCIA’s priority legislation that would end our industry’s banking crisis and provide financial services for the state-legal cannabis businesses. In addition to reintroducing her property rights protection legislation, H.R. 262, Rep. Lee is a co-sponsor of the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act and the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act.

Representative Lee is very familiar with the cannabis industry in her own backyard: her district is home to many NCIA members, including the nation’s longest continuously operating medical cannabis collective, Berkeley Patients Group, the internationally-recognized Oaksterdam University, and the country’s largest medical cannabis collective, Harborside Health Center.

We hope you’ll be able to join us at this historic event in Las Vegas on Wednesday, November 11th. Much has changed since NCIA formed back in 2010, and there can be no denying the monumental strides achieved since then by the cannabis industry.