Press Releases

Americans for Safe Access Releases Practical Guide for Patients and Caregivers, Taking Its Long-Running Patients’ Rights Campaign to the Federal Level

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans for Safe Access (ASA) today released ASA’s Patient & Caregiver Guide to New Cannabis Laws, giving medical cannabis patients and caregivers practical tools and resources to exercise their new federal rights while government agencies, healthcare systems, employers, housing providers, and other institutions work to catch up with changes in federal law.

The guide is being released as ASA expands its long-running Patients’ Rights Campaign to the federal level following the April 28, 2026, Attorney General Order. The Order changed the federal framework for qualifying state medical cannabis programs and gave patients a stronger foundation for asserting federal protections, but it provided little direction to most federal agencies or to the public and private institutions whose policies affect patients every day.

Since its founding, ASA has used a similar model at the state level: educating patients and caregivers about their rights, creating tools to help them assert those rights, documenting violations, assisting patients facing discrimination, identifying failures in implementation, training professionals, pressing state agencies to correct policies, pursuing legislative fixes, educating institutions, and litigating when necessary.

“The fight for medical cannabis has moved to the federal level, and that means implementation,” said Steph Sherer, founder and executive director of Americans for Safe Access. “For more than two decades, ASA has had to do more than help pass medical cannabis laws. We have had to make sure state agencies actually implemented those laws and that patients could benefit from the protections they fought to win.”

“The Attorney General’s Order changes the federal landscape, but it gives very little guidance to most federal agencies or to the healthcare systems, employers, landlords, schools, service providers, and other institutions that now have to respond,” Sherer continued. “We cannot wait for every agency and institution to figure this out on its own. Patients need to know what has changed, how to assert their rights, and what to do when an institution is still operating under outdated policies.”

ASA EXPANDS PATIENTS’ RIGHTS CAMPAIGN TO THE FEDERAL LEVEL

ASA’s Patients’ Rights Campaign lays out a comprehensive effort to turn federal recognition into enforceable protections for medical cannabis patients.

The campaign includes pressing the Administration to clarify patient protections and update discriminatory federal policies; lobbying Congress to establish a nationwide medical cannabis program and push federal agencies to protect patients; educating patients and caregivers about their rights; and creating practical tools they can use to assert those rights, document discrimination, and report violations.

ASA is also developing educational materials, standard operating procedures, and training resources for the institutions and professionals whose policies directly affect patients, including landlords, educators, medical professionals, hospital administrators, public defenders, private businesses, hospitals, assisted living facilities, hospices, and other healthcare and service providers.

The campaign also includes a communications strategy to highlight discrimination and solutions; ongoing analysis and reports on patterns of discrimination and implementation failures; direct engagement with agencies and institutions; and, when necessary, litigation to challenge policies and practices that continue to harm patients.

ASA’s Patient & Caregiver Guide to New Cannabis Laws is one of the first major tools in that federal implementation effort. It explains the new framework, how patients can maintain their legal status, how federal disability protections may apply, and how to request reasonable accommodations and individualized review. The guide also connects patients with ASA resources for documenting discrimination, obtaining written explanations of adverse decisions, reporting violations, and seeking case assistance.

ASA is asking patients and caregivers to report discrimination and outdated policies so the organization can identify recurring barriers by institution, sector, state, federal agency, and type of harm. These reports will help ASA distinguish isolated misunderstandings from systemic practices, provide case assistance, target institutional education, advocate for agency guidance and enforcement, inform legislative action, and support administrative complaints or litigation when necessary.

“This is what patients need — practical tools to assert their rights,” said Ellen Lenox Smith of the U.S. Pain Foundation. “For years, I have avoided hospitals and put off surgeries because of the treatment I experienced as a medical cannabis patient. Thanks to this guide and the resources ASA has created, I now feel confident asserting my federal rights and finally benefiting from changes I have spent decades fighting to achieve.”

RELEASE COINCIDES WITH CANNABIS SAFETY MONTH

The guide is being released during Cannabis Safety Month, ASA’s national public education campaign focused on recognizing community concerns, spotlighting solutions, and building what comes next for cannabis policy.

As part of Cannabis Safety Month, ASA will host a patient education program tonight to introduce the guide and show patients and caregivers how to use its resources.

Federal Laws Have Changed. Policies & Stigma Haven’t: Navigating Medical Cannabis Rights & Discrimination in a New Era

Thursday, September 3, 2026
5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET

The program is part of Patient Advocacy in Action: Tools for Cannabis Safety, an educational series for Cannabis Safety Month designed to help patients and caregivers apply ASA resources.

Participants will learn how to understand the new federal framework, recognize potentially discriminatory or outdated policies, request reasonable accommodations and individualized review, ask for written explanations, document incidents, and report medical cannabis discrimination.

Register: www.safeaccessnow.org/navigating_medical_cannabis_in_a_new_era_webinar

Patient reporting will be central to ASA’s federal implementation strategy. Much of the discrimination patients experience occurs outside public view. Without reports from patients and caregivers, policymakers, regulators, and institutional leaders may never see how outdated policies are being applied or understand their consequences for patients.

“Reporting and responding to discrimination are essential to integrating cannabis medicines into healthcare systems,” Sherer said. “Firsthand patient experiences provide the evidence needed to improve implementation, identify persistent barriers, and hold institutions accountable.”

“Without that evidence followed by action, new medical cannabis laws will exist only on paper without protecting patients in practice,” Sherer added.

ASA is calling on the White House, Department of Justice, federal agencies, Congress, and state policymakers to review policies developed under cannabis prohibition, issue implementation guidance, and ensure that qualifying medical cannabis patients are not subjected to automatic exclusion because their medicine is cannabis. The guide also includes action alerts for patient advocates to contact the Trump administration and policymakers. 

ABOUT CANNABIS SAFETY MONTH

Cannabis Safety Month is a national public education campaign that addresses public concerns about cannabis safety through education, inclusion, and community building. By confronting polarizing topics and cutting through political rhetoric, the campaign seeks to broaden support for sensible medical cannabis policy and protect the future of medical cannabis access.

Recognizing Community Concerns. Spotlighting Solutions. Building What Comes Next.

Learn more: www.safeaccessnow.org/cannabis_safety_month_2026

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR SAFE ACCESS

Founded in 2002, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is the largest national organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists, providers, and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. ASA uses legislation, education, litigation, research, grassroots empowerment, advocacy, and services for medical cannabis stakeholders to meet the immediate needs of patients while advancing a national medical cannabis program.

Download ASA’s Patient & Caregiver Guide to New Cannabis Laws: SafeAccessNow.org/Patient_Caregiver_Guide_to_New_Cannabis_Laws