Honoring Medical Cannabis Warriors
On Tuesday evening, October 16th, Americans for Safe Access celebrated our 10th anniversary - and patients' day in court - with an awards dinner honoring the brave warriors for medical cannabis access who have fought for all patients.
Executive Director Steph Sherer introduced the courageous champions, saying:
I am honored to share this evening with all of you. Over the years, ASA has been blessed with a truly dynamic staff, dedicated volunteers, and courageous members. I am truly grateful to have been fighting this fight alongside all of you. I would especially like to thank our awardees. Dan Rush, who is accepting the Movement Building Award on behalf of UFCW and Michael McGuffin, who is accepting the Patient Partnership Award on behalf of the American Herbal Products Association, have been instrumental in cultivating exciting new partnerships which I truly believe are the future of the medical cannabis movement. Presented with the Spirit Award is Jon Gettman, and presented with our Courage Awards are the plaintiffs in ASA vs DEA Mary Lynn Mathre, Al Byrne, Bill Britt, Catherine Jordan, Michael Krawitz, and Rick Steed. Each one of these individuals has served as an inspiration for the work that is done every day as well as to me personally.
The biographies of the plaintiffs, who were given our Courage Award, can be found here. The other awardees are:
Spirit Award: Jon B. Gettman is a marijuana reform activist, a leader of the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, and a former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He has a PhD in public policy and regional economic development from George Mason University and is a longtime contributor to High Times magazine. Gettman filed a petition in 1995 to remove cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act that was eventually denied. A second petition was filed in 2002, with the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, that remains under review by the Department of Health and Human Services. Gettman frequently publishes on the marijuana industry and teaches public administration at Shepherd University in West Virginia.
Patient Partnership Award: Michael McGuffin is a leading expert on dietary supplement regulation. He has been published in scholarly and scientific journals, including the Food and Drug Law Journal and Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and also wrote the highly-lauded publication AHPA's Annotated Final Rule on Dietary Supplement cGMP (2007). Additionally, Mr. McGuffin served as Managing Editor of AHPA's Botanical Safety Handbook (1997) and Herbs of Commerce, 2nd edition (2000). He speaks frequently on dietary supplement regulation in the U.S. and abroad. Michael McGuffin was honored in 2010 for over 20 years of dedicated service, having served as the President of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) since 1999 and a member of the Board of Trustee's for 10 years prior. Mr. McGuffin has represented the herbal industry at state and federal hearings on herbal regulatory issues. He has served as a member of the FDA's Food Advisory Committee Working Group on Good Manufacturing Practices for Dietary Supplements (1998-99), the FDA's Food Advisory Committee's Dietary Supplements Subcommittee (2003-5) and currently serves on California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Analysis Food Warning Workgroup and the Advisory Board of the USC School of Pharmacy Regulatory Science Master's Degree Program. He also serves on the boards of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and United Plant Savers.
Movement Building Award: Dan Rush is the National Director for the Medical Cannabis and Hemp Division of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). UFCW is North America's Neighborhood Union with 1.3 million members standing together to improve the lives and livelihoods of workers, families, and communities. Mr. Rush is a medical cannabis industry pioneer and authority. He is the spokesperson for the Californians to Regulate Medical Marijuana and the board secretary of the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform (CCPR). In 2010 he established UFCW5's Cannabis Division and organized the very first union members in the medical cannabis industry."UFCW is the union of retail, food processing and agricultural workers, and the medical cannabis industry is a retail, food pro- cessing and agricultural industry", says Mr. Rush. "Our union is bringing dignity, legitimacy, stability, standards and strength to both workers and employers. We advocate for a regu- lated industry that creates good jobs and significant tax revenue for our communities." Dan is a native of Oakland California. He is a Central Committee Delegate of the California Democratic Party and an expert on statewide ballot initiatives. He coordinates an annual National Labor-Community Awards in San Francisco, which is the largest event of its kind in the United States.
Jonathan Bair is ASA's Social Media Director.
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