Resources for Medical Cannabis Businesses

RESOURCES FOR MEDICAL CANNABIS BUSINESSES

When Americans for Safe Access was founded in 2002, there were approximately 11 underground cannabis collectives providing for medical cannabis patients that were all operating outside state and federal laws and being targeted by the Bush Administration. At the time, there were no laws protecting cannabis businesses and the only medical cannabis laws in the country were criminal exemption laws that allowed patients to present a letter from their doctor to get the charges dropped if they were arrested.

ASA drafted and passed the first medical cannabis access laws in 2002 in cities in the Bay Area of California. ASA worked with medical cannabis businesses to prepare for federal raids, tracked federal interference, organized national protests around federal raids and prosecutions, and in 2014 passed federal legislation stopping the raids, arrests, and prosecutions.

Since then, ASA has worked to pass legislation in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and most US territories and continues to work with states to improve programs and pass laws in new states and territories. In 2006, ASA opened an office in DC where we continue to advocate for a federal medical cannabis program.

In 2011, ASA teamed up with American Herbal Products Association and the American Herbal Pharmacopeia to create product safety protocols for the medical cannabis supply chain. ASA created the Patient Focused Certification program to help cannabis businesses incorporate these protocols into their business policies and trainings for their staff.

ASA has created materials and resources for businesses to better serve patients including educational materials such as booklets, videos, and webinars.

We hope you join us to continue our fight for safe access, sign up today to stay connected!

Until there is safe access…We are Americans for Safe Access!