Ask Your State to Permanently Maintain Cannabis COVID Emergency Measures!

Posted by 21pc on

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of millions of Americans in countless ways. As a patient organization, ASA has been especially concerned about how to protect medical cannabis access during the crisis as well as maintain patient access to medicine. To address these challenges ASA worked with state governments in 2020 to ensure that state COVID plans designated cannabis businesses as essential, and implemented other key features to improve access, reduce costs and keep patients safe. Key among these new emergency program features were improvements to state programs that patients have been requesting from states for years. Such reforms included:

  • Auto renewals of patient registrations for state medical programs to help patients save money during the national health and economic crisis
  • Authorized use of telehealth visits with physicians to determine patient eligibility to participate in state medical programs, which is keeping patients safe from exposure and reducing patient cost and travel burdens 
  • Permission for legal retailers to offer curbside pickup and delivery as options for patients to secure safe and legal access to medicine

As state legislatures reopen for 2021 ASA urges state lawmakers and regulators to permanently maintain these important program improvements, which repair long-standing gaps in state medical programs. While ASA will be sharing copies of our 2020 State of the State report with state elected officials and regulators highlighting these important improvements this month, we are also urging ASA members and medical cannabis advocates to weigh in on social media on the need to maintain these key improvements.