Join Safe Access Virginia tomorrow at 12pm for inaugural meeting!

Posted by on November 15, 2013

Safe Access Virginia (SAV) is the brand new ASA chapter dedicated to bringing medical cannabis to our commonwealth. While Virginia was one of the very first states to adopt a medical cannabis policy in the late 1970s, the still-extant law is purely symbolic, requiring a valid cannabis prescription for any legal immunity and failing to establish any distribution scheme. SAV was created to address this issue on a statewide level, to ensure that compassion and reason guide expedient medical cannabis policy change.

We have already contacted our legislators in person, via phone and via letter, and have received mixed responses. Given the recent contentious elections in Virginia and the national and state-level fervor over healthcare reform, the time for pushing medical cannabis policy is now. We have created a comprehensive Virginia Medical Cannabis Act, which establishes a committee comprised of professionals and laypeople from various backgrounds to oversee the immediate implementation of the details of the act. The act covers legal immunity, responsibilities and rights of patients, physicians and caretakers, a system of distribution and patient cultivation, and identifies a wide and expandable list of qualifying conditions. We are hoping to find sponsors for this act this legislative session.

To grow our movement in Virginia, we are hosting our inaugural meeting from 12 to 2pm on Saturday, November 16th, at the Fish Bowl Bistro and Bar, 101 South 15th Street, Richmond, VA. The first hour will be a social forum for new members to get acquainted, and in the second hour the steering committee will present the drafted legislation, the specific courses of action we plan to pursue, lobbying and advocacy skills training, and future plans for chapter development and events. We invite anyone to join our movement to end the suffering and indignity imposed by Virginia’s current lack of safe access to medical cannabis.