Meet ASA's Featured Advocates

Ron Millward, Pennsylvania

William Dolphin | November 30, 2022

Ron Millward joined the Air Force at age 17, while he was still in high school. He served eight years through multiple deployments. Today, his mission is to help other veterans find ways to achieve balance after their military service.  

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Kent Morrell, Knoxville, Tennessee

William Dolphin | October 26, 2022

Today is bonus day 1,248. That’s what Kent Morrell would say if he was talking to you now. That’s how he always begins his story — with how many days it has been since cannabis rescued him from the crippling pain...

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Rita Lynn Lawrence, Edgewater, Maryland

William Dolphin | July 01, 2022

Rita Lynn Lawrence has faced a life-long struggle with painful congenital medical conditions that have proven difficult to treat. Even accepting the diagnosis of muscular dystrophy and the winged scapula that resulted from weakened back muscles was difficult. Doctors could...

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Carla Basante, New Jersey

William Dolphin | March 01, 2022

Carla Basante began using cannabis about 15 years ago to manage chronic pain from a severe back injury and symptoms of multiple sclerosis. A breast cancer survivor, Carla has had two back surgeries to treat the damage caused by a...

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Crista Eggers, Nebraska

William Dolphin | February 28, 2022

Most medical cannabis activists become advocates for safe access because they’ve had direct experience treating a medical condition with cannabis. Crista Eggers is not one of those. She became a committed activist because cannabis is prohibited in her state, even...

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Chris Conrad & Mikki Norris, California

William Dolphin | December 02, 2021

The San Francisco Bay Area holds a place in history as the center of grassroots organizing that made medical cannabis legal – first in the city and county, then in the state of California and much of the rest of...

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Robert Head, Dallas, Texas

William Dolphin | November 05, 2021

Six years ago, Robert Head, a veteran of multiple tours in Iraq with the U.S. Army Infantry, was having a hard time with pain in his knees and feet. To manage it, he was taking painkillers, including 10-15 ibuprofen each...

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Michelle J. Wright, Maryland

William Dolphin | October 01, 2021

Why would a senior healthcare executive, business consultant, and community leader seek a graduate pharmacy degree focused on cannabis? The love of a son with severe autism was the answer for Michelle Wright.

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Jamie Lowell, Detroit, Michigan

William Dolphin | September 01, 2021

After more than a dozen years as a cannabis activist in Michigan, Jamie Lowell has seen the environment in his state evolve dramatically, but some things remain the same. Threats to safe access continue to emerge, and the diverse cannabis...

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Deb McCauley, Sarasota, Florida

William Dolphin | August 01, 2021

Deb McCauley had been a medical professional for more than two decades, and had juggled her own seizure medications for nearly as long, when a friend approached her in the summer of 2018 with an alternative she’d not considered.

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