Canna Cares is a Maryland nonprofit founded by U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran Rick Glass to make cannabis education more grounded, practical, and useful for the people making real-world decisions about its use. Drawing on Glass’s lived experience, the organization focuses on public safety, responsible use, stigma reduction, and helping people separate credible information from fear, exaggeration, and misinformation.
The organization does not treat cannabis as harmless, but it also rejects messaging that relies on stigma or assumes that any use is irresponsible. Its education addresses benefits, risks, impairment, and personal responsibility in a way that encourages people to think more carefully about their own decisions and the consequences those decisions can have for themselves and others.
Veterans are an important part of that mission. Glass brings the perspective of someone who understands both military culture and the experience of turning to cannabis as part of recovery. That gives Canna Cares a credible voice with veterans and other people who may be reluctant to seek information through traditional cannabis channels or who have encountered conflicting messages about safety and medical use.
The organization also engages consumers, community groups, and public safety professionals around one of the most difficult parts of cannabis education: talking honestly about impairment. Canna Cares makes room for the distinction between responsible cannabis use and situations in which cannabis can affect judgment, reaction time, or the ability to perform safety-sensitive activities. That allows conversations about impairment to happen without turning them into arguments about whether cannabis itself is “good” or “bad.”
Its emphasis on stigma is equally important. Shame and misinformation can discourage people from asking questions, disclosing cannabis use, or seeking guidance when they need it. By creating a setting where people can discuss cannabis openly and without judgment, Canna Cares helps move those conversations toward practical choices about safer use, impairment, and when additional support may be needed.
Canna Cares reflects the Community Catalyst Award through its ability to reach people who are often left out of conventional cannabis education and give them a more balanced way to think about safety. By combining veteran experience, public safety education, responsible-use messaging, and stigma reduction, the organization is helping communities have more honest and useful conversations about cannabis.
Website: Canna Cares
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“Canna Cares and owner Rick Glass are honored to be nominated for the 2026 Community Catalyst Award: Collaborative Cannabis Safety Leadership." |
Support Canna Cares for the 2026 Community Catalyst Award.
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