OREGON:Andrew Sullivan, the prominent writer and blogger, compared the effort to legalize marijuana to the fight for marriage equality in the United States in a talk that highlighted the key factors propelling what he called an “extraordinary leap forward” in cannabis policy.

Sullivan was the keynote speaker at the International Cannabis Business Conference held Saturday at the Oregon Convention Center. The two-day conference, attended by an estimated 700 people, is aimed at what organizer Alex Rogers, an Ashland businessman, called the “high echelon of cannabis entrepreneurs.”

Sullivan, who received a standing ovation after his morning talk, analyzed the rapid social and cultural change that’s moved marijuana from the fringes to a drug that polls show most Americans think should be legal.