State Medical Cannabis Laws Graded by Patient Advocates in New Report from Americans for Safe Access (ASA)

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) works for the medical cannabis community and has had a major impact on the entire cannabis movement for 20 years. ASA has a particular focus on access to medical cannabis for therapeutic and research purposes, and the overall patient experience of medical marijuana.

Just last week, the ASA released its annual report essentially evaluating various states in the United States regarding their medical cannabis programs. Perhaps one of the most interesting stats they mentioned in a press conference to me was that in 2014, when the ASA first started producing these reports, the states they assessed he only had 14 states. It was the fact that it didn’t.In this Newly published reports from 2022they rated a whopping 55 states/territories… wow!!

Who will be the 2022 ASA overall winner? B-Maryland. States were not given bonuses this year as they had been in the past, and instead were given penalties for poor policies and/or patient experience. It was 46.16%.

The ASA says it is not against adult use, but its priority is to ensure patients are prioritized and given the best access. I noticed that they prioritized adult use programs rather than marijuana patients. It was also mentioned that there are

You can watch the entire webinar and press briefing here.

Americans for Safe Access 2022 Annual Report

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) titled its annual report:2022 State Report: Analysis of Access to Medical Cannabis in the United States“

This report evaluates the effectiveness of each state’s cannabis programs from a patient perspective and assigns grades using a rubric that reflects key issues affecting patient access. It is organized into over 100 categories, including barriers to access, civil protection, affordability, and health. Social equity, product safety. The report also assigns penalties for harmful policies. ASA distributes reports to legislators and regulators in every state and to hundreds of medical and patient organizations nationwide.

Despite an increase in registered patient numbers and states with medical cannabis programs, the report highlights the fact that states are still falling short of creating programs that meet the needs of all patients. It received the highest score of 75.71%. The report also highlights emerging issues facing patients, including declining legislative improvements to state medical cannabis programs and the negative impact of recreational adult use laws on access to medical cannabis. increase.

The report also provides solutions for improving state programs, including legislative and regulatory language. Since its first edition in 2014, proponents and legislators have used his ASA report to pass new laws and regulations to improve access to medical cannabis. This year’s report provides policymakers with: Medical cannabis stock checklist Improving laws in states that have adult entertainment programs or are considering adopting such programs to ensure patient access is not compromised.

“The ASA state report will provide valuable information to policymakers and regulators about the key issues affecting patient access to medical cannabis,” he said. Will Tilburg, Executive Director, Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission“As Maryland develops its Adult Cannabis Framework, the Equity Checklist for Medical Cannabis, in particular, is designed to ensure that patients and access to medical cannabis remain a central focus. help inform policy decisions.”

The ASA recognizes that state policymakers and regulators are tasked with creating supply chain infrastructure that remains illegal at the federal level, and is now seemingly federally legal and regulated. Addressing new health concerns in the unregulated cannabinoid market.In 2022 alone, 99 laws were introduced regarding the unregulated cannabinoid market. We are asking patient advocates to join us in calling on Congress to pass comprehensive federal legislation, and we provide the steps to do so in our section on “State Governments’ Role in Repealing Federal Prohibitions.”

“In preparing this report, it became clear that if the federal government passed comprehensive medical cannabis federal legislation, it would reduce the burden on states,” it said. Debbie Churgai, Executive Director, Americans for Safe Access“This report gives state policy makers a renewed commitment not only to improve state laws for patients, but to work with the ASA and our allies to end federal cannabis bans once and for all.” The ASA hopes to inspire strong commitment.”

About Americans for Safe Access

The ASA is the largest national organization of patients, medical cannabis providers, medical professionals, scientists and interested citizens to promote safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. with over 150,000 active members in all 50 states. Since its inception, the ASA has shifted the public debate over medical cannabis from focusing solely on the legality and ethics of arresting and prosecuting patients for cannabis use to focusing on patient issues such as access and civil protection. succeeded in including the true concern of In addition to representing patients on the Capitol, the ASA has worked with lawmakers across the country to adopt and improve medical cannabis laws and regulatory policies.