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Cannabis Safety Month was designed as a collaborative campaign because no single institution, agency, profession, or community can address cannabis safety alone. Patients experience the consequences of policy and product decisions; healthcare professionals see different risks in clinical settings; researchers generate evidence; businesses implement safety practices; regulators set standards; and community organizations often connect all these perspectives.

Product safety, healthcare access, youth education, impaired driving, consumer protection, and professional training require non-traditional coalitions to share information, identify problems, and develop practical solutions. ASA’s broader Cannabis Safety Month campaign similarly emphasizes collaboration among patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, businesses, public officials, advocates, families, and other stakeholders.

The Community Catalyst Award recognizes a company or organization that brings patients, families, healthcare providers, educators, businesses, researchers, public officials, or other stakeholders together around a cannabis safety need. Strong community leadership goes beyond raising awareness. It requires creating partnerships that share expertise, reach new audiences, solve problems, and build relationships and infrastructure that continue after an individual campaign or event ends.

The future of medical cannabis will depend on stronger connections between patients, healthcare systems, government, businesses, researchers, and communities. The 2026 Community Catalyst Award nominees, Georgia Medical Cannabis Society, The North Bloom Magazine, Canna Cares, Oklahomans for Safe Access, Firefighters for Plant Medicine, and Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association, are building the connections that will move cannabis safety from liabilities for access toward shared responsibility for improving cannabis safety.

Learn more about the Community Catalyst Award!

MEET THE COMMUNITY CATALYST AWARD NOMINEES

Georgia Medical Cannabis Society

Georgia Medical Cannabis Society brings patients, clinicians, researchers, legislators, veterans, businesses, and advocates together around medical cannabis access and safety in Georgia. Its work combines patient education with policymaker engagement, including helping people understand how to obtain regulated products and advocating for a medical cannabis program that better reflects patient needs.

Its nomination reflects the role coalition building can play when changes to a medical cannabis program require patients, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and businesses to understand both the opportunities and the practical implications of new policies.

The North Bloom Magazine

The North Bloom Magazine uses publishing and community engagement to connect Minnesota consumers with patients, clinicians, educators, entrepreneurs, local businesses, and other voices shaping the state’s emerging cannabis marketplace. Its free publication combines cannabis education, wellness information, clinical perspectives, local business stories, and practical resources for people navigating newly legal cannabis.

By creating a platform for diverse local voices and distributing information through hundreds of community locations, The North Bloom turns cannabis education into a shared community resource while connecting readers with the people and institutions shaping cannabis in their communities.

Canna Cares

Canna Cares brings cannabis consumers into conversation with veterans, seniors, caregivers, businesses, community organizations, and public safety professionals. Its education addresses benefits and risks, responsible use, impairment, safe storage, dosing, product testing, mental health considerations, and other safety issues without relying on either fear or the assumption that cannabis is harmless.

The organization’s work is designed to create a bridge between people who use cannabis and the professionals and communities that serve them. By bringing evidence, lived experience, personal responsibility, and public safety into the same conversation, Canna Cares creates opportunities for groups that may begin with very different perspectives to find practical areas of agreement.

Oklahomans for Safe Access

Oklahomans for Safe Access brings patient voices together with researchers, advocates, lawmakers, agency representatives, compliance professionals, and other subject matter experts around product safety and regulatory accountability. Its work addresses testing reliability, recalls, labeling, regulatory transparency, patient protections, and preparation for changes in federal cannabis policy.

By connecting patient experiences with regulatory research and technical expertise, OSA helps translate cannabis safety concerns into recommendations policymakers and regulators can act on. Its work demonstrates how coalition building can give patients a more meaningful role in the systems intended to protect them. 2026_Cannabis_Safety_Awards_Nom…

Firefighters for Plant Medicine

Firefighters for Plant Medicine has built a community around cannabis access, education, and wellness for firefighters and other first responders. The organization brings together firefighters, families, mental health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and allies to address plant medicine access and health and wellness needs of first responders.

Its work has already contributed to policy change in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, where firefighters can use cannabis while off duty without adverse employment consequences unless they are impaired. The organization is now working with additional departments while expanding peer support, education, and outreach to the professionals and institutions involved in first responder health.

Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association

Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association brings Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities into cannabis policy, public health, regulation, research, education, and economic development. Its coalition building connects Tribal leaders with policymakers, health professionals, researchers, educators, and cannabis businesses while keeping Tribal sovereignty and community priorities central to the conversation.

ICIA’s work includes culturally grounded education, youth prevention, responsible regulatory frameworks, public health, product standards, and support for Tribal Nations developing their own cannabis policies and markets. By building bridges between Indian Country and institutions shaping cannabis policy, the organization creates opportunities for Tribal communities to participate as partners rather than being brought into decisions after they have already been made.

Building Cannabis Safety Together

Many cannabis safety problems sit between traditional institutions. A patient concern may require a researcher to study it, a healthcare professional to interpret it, a business to change a practice, a regulator to update a rule, and a community organization to ensure the information reaches the people affected.

The nominees for the 2026 Community Catalyst Award are creating those connections. Their work shows that collaboration isn't simply about putting different stakeholders in the same room. It is about giving people with different expertise and experiences a way to work together on practical solutions that improve cannabis safety and medical access.

Cast your vote for the 2026 Community Catalyst Award through October 25.