PORTLAND — U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, is one of 13 co-sponsors of a bill that supporters say would end marijuana prohibition at the federal level.

News of the proposed legislation came on the same day that a petition drive seeking to legalize pot possession began in Portland, the largest city in Pingree’s home state. The effort to decriminalize marijuana at a federal level also comes as state Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, is pursuing a bill in Augusta to do so at the state level.

Pingree, a 1st District Democrat, is currently the only congressman from New England to sign on in support of H.R. 499, titled the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013. The only Republican co-sponsor is U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, the bill would establish a system in which marijuana is regulated similarly to alcohol at the federal level, placing the drug under the jurisdiction of a renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana, Firearms and Explosives.

Currently, regulation of pot as an illegal substance is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The proposed legislation, which was introduced by Colorado Democrat Jared Polis, would likely clear up what has become legal gray area in enforcement of marijuana laws across the country. While the substance is still outlawed by the federal government, 18 states — including Maine — have legalized its use as a doctor-prescribed medical treatment. At least two other states, Washington and Polis’ home state of Colorado, have passed laws allowing its recreational use.

In Maine, efforts are under way to make possession of 2.5 ounces or less of the drug legal, first through a citywide petition in Portland and then through state legislation.

While federal agents have largely allowed state-approved medical marijuana dispensaries operate without intervention, discrepancies between federal, state and sometimes local laws on the issue of pot legality have been a subject of nationwide debate.