Medical Cannabis Patient Discrimination: Housing

Medical cannabis patients and caregivers may face housing discrimination when a landlord, property manager, housing authority, shelter, condominium association, or other housing provider learns that they participate in a state medical cannabis program. This may include denial of housing, eviction threats, lease violations, refusal to renew a lease, penalties, or denial of a reasonable accommodation.

Important: If the housing is public, federally assisted, or subsidized—including HUD public housing, a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), supportive housing, or another government housing benefit—also use the Disability Benefits, Public Benefits, Transportation, or Public Services Discrimination form. Use the Housing Discrimination form for issues involving the landlord, lease, eviction, nonrenewal, property rules, or a housing accommodation request.

Housing policies often contain broad language about controlled substances, smoking, criminal activity, or drug-free properties. These policies may be applied without considering a person's status as a medical cannabis patient or caregiver, changes in federal medical cannabis law, or whether the person may be protected under the Fair Housing Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Patients and caregivers may need to educate housing providers about the law and request an individualized review. These protections do not allow patients to disregard lease terms, smoking restrictions, or legitimate safety requirements. They may, however, support requests for reasonable accommodations that account for patients' medical needs, including the need for inhaled forms in some circumstances and the secure storage of cannabis as medicine.

Patients and caregivers can use the resources on this page to communicate with a landlord or housing authority. These include educational materials about the law and patients’ rights, as well as sample reasonable accommodation requests that can help frame the conversation. A request does not guarantee that a housing provider will approve the accommodation. Because these protections are new, meaningful implementation may require continued education, public pressure, administrative complaints, or litigation.

PATIENT & CAREGIVER RESOURCES:

The immediate threat of losing housing can make it difficult to focus on anything beyond the crisis. Even so, documenting what happened, reporting discrimination to ASA, and educating the community about discriminatory practices are essential to making these protections real.

1. Assert your rights and be prepared to educate your housing provider.

2. Request a reasonable accommodation.

3. Keep and organize your documentation.

4. Report the discrimination.

REPORTING DISCRIMINATION

Whenever possible, request the policy and decision in writing, document statements about federal law or federal funding, preserve notices and communications, and record every upcoming deadline.

The checklist below can help patients and caregivers document what happened, identify the policy or decision involved, and gather the records needed to request an accommodation, challenge a housing action, or report discrimination.

You do not need to have every document on this checklist before reporting an incident. Report urgent situations promptly, continue gathering records, and keep copies of everything you submit.

If the issue involves HUD public housing, a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), supportive housing, or another federally assisted or subsidized housing program, also use the Disability Benefits, Public Benefits, Transportation, or Public Services Discrimination form.

Download Housing Discrimination Checklist

Helpful ASA Resources

The following Americans for Safe Access resources can help patients and caregivers understand their state medical cannabis program, assert their rights, document discrimination, and seek assistance.

Know Your State’s Medical Cannabis Laws | Understand and Assert Your Rights | Tools for Asserting Your Rights | Report Medical Cannabis Discrimination | Traveling with Medical Cannabis | ASA Patient Guides | ASA Resources for Patients & Caregivers

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