Americans For Safe Access is proud to announce the 2017 edition of our Medical Marijuana Access in the United States report. Beginning in 2014 ASA recognized the need to evaluate and compare the myriad of medical cannabis laws across the country. To this end we worked with our members and patients nationwide to develop a grading matrix that would indicate how well a states laws met the needs of patients.
With medical cannabis programs now encompassing 44 states, the District of Columbia and the territories of Puerto Rico and Guam, 300 million Americans (85% of the population) now live in states with medical cannabis laws.
This report is intended to help law makers and regulators learn from the successes and challenges faced by their peers in other states and get an objective evaluation of their own program.
The report uses a point system to grade each medical marijuana law on:
- Patients' rights and protection from discrimination
- Access to medicine
- Ease of navigation
- Functionality
- Product safety protocols
We're happy to report that despite the grades of a few states declining in 2016, overall our nation's grades are improving and we were excited to see some new states enter the report starting off on a very good foot.
Letter-grades for all 44 states and Washington, D.C.: Alabama (F-), Alaska (D-), Arizona (B-), Arkansas (B-), California (B+), Colorado (B-), Connecticut (B-), Delaware (C+), Florida (B-), Georgia (F-), Hawai'i (B), Illinois (B+), Iowa (F-), Kentucky (F-), Louisiana (F-), Maine (B), Maryland (C), Massachusetts (B-), Michigan (B+), Minnesota (C-), Mississippi (F-), Missouri (F-), Montana (B), Nevada (B), New Hampshire (B-), New Jersey (C), New Mexico (B), New York (C), North Carolina (F-), North Dakota (C), Ohio (B), Oklahoma (F-), Oregon (B), Pennsylvania (B-), Rhode Island (C+), South Carolina (F-), Tennessee (F-), Texas (F-), Utah (F-), Vermont (C-), Virginia (F-), Washington (C-), Wisconsin (F-), Wyoming (F-), and the District of Columbia (B-).
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