Meet ASA's Featured Advocates

John Belville, Canyon County, Idaho

William Dolphin | September 02, 2019

John Belville, 77, took an unusual path to becoming the Chief Petitioner for the medical cannabis initiative in Idaho that is currently gathering signatures. John had become a drug and alcohol counselor in his forties, after a career as a musician...

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Jana Adams, Sonoma, California

William Dolphin | August 01, 2019

Jana Adams is on a two-pronged mission to educate people about what medical cannabis can do for children with seizure disorders.

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Dawn-Marie Steenstra, Maryland

William Dolphin | July 01, 2019

Dawn-Marie Steenstra, LPN, SDC, IC, QA, SCC, became a medical cannabis advocate by accident. In 2012, she’d just started dating the man who is now her husband, Eric Steenstra, when he invited her to attend the Patients Out of Time Conference with...

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Todd Larkin, Ardmore, Oklahoma

William Dolphin | June 03, 2019

In 2011, ten years after enlisting in the U.S. Army and serving tours of duty in Egypt and Afghanistan, Todd Larkin was discharged an E5 Sergeant and returned to his wife and kids in his hometown of Ardmore, Oklahoma, between...

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Rylie and Janie Maedler, Delaware

William Dolphin | May 01, 2019

Janie Maedler wasn’t planning on raising a medical cannabis activist. She just wanted the best possible treatment for her young daughter’s rare medical condition. 

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Diana Dodson, ASA Courage Award

William Dolphin | April 02, 2019

Diana Dodson, recipient of the 2019 ASA Courage Award, has demonstrated unyielding commitment to advocating for medical cannabis patients since before the first state law was passed.

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Joshua Crossney, Baltimore, Maryland

William Dolphin | March 01, 2019

Joshua Crossney first got interested in the medical cannabis industry in 2015 when he realized that, compared to other fields of medicine and science, the research and testing standards for cannabis were lacking.

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Todd Scattini, Kansas City, Missouri

William Dolphin | February 01, 2019

Todd Scattini’s journey to medical cannabis activism began, improbably, in Afghanistan. An Army officer, Scattini was asked in 2011 to devise a plan to create an industry for the Afghans out of the resources they had.

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Doug Rice, Utah

William Dolphin | December 03, 2018

Doug Rice, a retired firefighter and paramedic in Utah, became a medical cannabis advocate on behalf of his 26-year-old daughter, Ashley. She was in her mid-teens when she had her first drop seizure at school. Gradually they increased in severity...

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Mohammed Mustafa, Virginia

William Dolphin | November 01, 2018

Activism takes many forms and finds many inspirations. For pharmacologist Mohammed Mustafa, interest in medical cannabis came from realizing a close family member who died from cancer could have eased the devastating effects of chemotherapy with cannabis, if it had...

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