Meet ASA's Featured Advocates

Los Angeles ASA Chapter

William Dolphin | October 01, 2018

Americans for Safe Access is welcoming a new chapter in the world’s largest cannabis market, Los Angeles, California. The two principal organizers, Chris Malcolm and Antonio Frazier, were each working independently on the idea this past year, without knowing what the...

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Tom Duncan, Iowa

William Dolphin | September 03, 2018

Tom Duncan, co-founder of Iowans for Safe Access and recipient of ASA’s Courage Award in 2017, passed away on August 15, 2018, after living with cancer for years. He was 60.

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Nic Easley, Denver, Colorado

William Dolphin | August 01, 2018

Nic Easley’s introduction to medical cannabis came courtesy of injuries he sustained serving his country. The doctors at the VA prescribed medications to help him, but in 2006, four years after his honorable discharge from the Air Force, Nic turned...

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Christy and Mark Zartler, ASA 2018 Courage Award

William Dolphin | July 02, 2018

For Christy Zartler, the breaking point came four years ago when her 14-year-old daughter’s neurologist announced that he’d exhausted all the pharmaceutical treatments available. For ten years, Christy and her husband Mark had been struggling to control Kara’s severe autism...

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Jennifer Collins, Patient Advocate of the Year

William Dolphin | May 01, 2018

Jennifer Collins of Virginia may be the youngest recipient of ASA’s annual Patient Advocate of the Year Award, but at 18 she has already been an effective advocate for years.

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Lisa Sublett, Kansas

William Dolphin | April 02, 2018

What led Lisa Sublett to medical cannabis were the health issues she faced after the birth of her last child. Research was part of her career path in corporate marketing, so she set about investigating her options.

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Ellen Lenox Smith, Rhode Island

William Dolphin | March 01, 2018

Ellen Lenox Smith was a competitive swimmer and dedicated teacher and coach when, at age 42, it became clear something was wrong. She had pain that could not be identified or treated but worsened over the next dozen years.

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Scott Roberts, Sacramento, California

William Dolphin | February 01, 2018

The twitches in Scott Roberts’ head started when he was just 12. His involuntary head movements were misdiagnosed as Tourette’s Syndrome, and for 17 years he took medication prescribed for that condition, as the twitches progressed to violent twists that...

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Amy Catterton, North Carolina

William Dolphin | December 01, 2017

Pain and nausea have been part of Amy Catterton’s life since 2015. That’s when, at age 28, she was diagnosed with stage-3 invasive breast cancer.

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Justin Arriola, Utah

William Dolphin | November 01, 2017

Navy veteran Justin Arriola, a former petty officer 3rd class who served in the Gulf, knows cannabis can help treat the effects of the herniated disc he suffered in the line of duty, but he doesn’t consider himself a patient....

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