Press Releases

Last week, Maryland regulators issued the first license to grow medical cannabis in Maryland to ForwardGro, a company with a 1-acre greenhouse located in Anne Arundel County. This decision comes more than four years after Maryland first approved a medical cannabis program.

WASHINGTON DC -- Earlier today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters that “I think medical marijuana has been hyped, maybe too much.”

In reaction to Sessions’ comments, Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis for therapeutic use and research, issued the following statement:

More than 85% of the U.S. population live in states with medical cannabis laws, and over 2 million Americans are benefiting from its use. These laws address the healthcare needs of patients who benefit from cannabis-based treatments, often where conventional medications have failed. Patient populations include people living with or treating cancer, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), epilepsy, severe childhood epilepsy disorders such as Dravet Syndrome, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, and a myriad of other conditions.

Statements like these from the Attorney General are factually inaccurate - in January, the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering released a report that reviewed over 10,000 research articles, which states there is conclusive, moderate, and substantial evidence for benefits of cannabis in several conditions. Sessions needs to stop spreading unfounded, unscientific theories about medical marijuana and take the time to actually meet the millions of Americans that are benefitting from its use before making comments about it being over-hyped.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) released their annual report, Medical Marijuana Access in the United States: A Patient-Focused Analysis of the Patchwork of State Laws, in which U.S. states are assigned letter grades based on how well their medical cannabis program meets the needs of patients. Each state is graded according to a rubric of patient's rights, legal constraints, and overall accessibility to medical cannabis.

READ THE REPORT HERE: safeaccessnow.org/statesreport

Americans for Safe Access Urges Members of Congress to Stop Using False Information About Marijuana

Washington, DC — Today, Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis for therapeutic use and research, sent a memo to Congress informing members that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has removed false information about cannabis from its website after months of public pressure. The memo explains;

Forty-four states now allow patients under their physician's care to use medical cannabis (marijuana) in some form, and the majority of the rest of the states are discussing medical cannabis in their current legislative sessions. In addition, three cannabis related budget amendments and four bills have been introduced so far in the 115th Congress.

We know that you rely on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to provide current and accurate information when you are making decisions about cannabis policy. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) has prepared this memo to inform you about four important changes in the DEA’s positions on medical cannabis that could have an impact on your policy making decisions this session.

View the memo here: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/iqa_memo

Americans for Safe Access Says Not Good Enough, Still in Violation of IQA

WASHINGTON DC — After months of public pressure, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has removed factually inaccurate information from its website. The change comes after Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis for therapeutic use and research, filed a legal request with the Department of Justice last year demanding that the DEA immediately update and remove factually inaccurate information about cannabis from their website and materials.

WASHINGTON, DC — Over 100,000 people have signed an Americans for Safe Access petition on Change.org demanding that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stop disseminating false information about medical cannabis immediately and ensure that all of their future information on medical cannabis treatment reflect medically-accurate, up-to-date facts.

View the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/president-obama-make-the-dea-tell-the-truth-about-marijuana

Medical cannabis organization expresses concern about Senator Jeff Sessions’ drug enforcement policy plans

Washington, DC — Today, confirmation hearings began for attorney general nominee, Senator Jeff Sessions. During the hearing, Sessions was questioned about medical marijuana by Senators Patrick Leahy and Mike Lee. Sessions implied that he would enforce current federal marijuana laws. Earlier in the hearing, Sessions said he would advise President Trump not to set policies that would conflict with federal law. While Sessions’ response did not explicitly state he would shut down state marijuana programs, his response to Senator Lee was, “the United States Congress has made the possession of marijuana in every state and the distribution of it an illegal act,” and that, “it’s not so much the Attorney General’s job to decide what laws to enforce. We should do our jobs and enforce laws as effectively as we are able.” Sessions concluded that Congress must change the law if they do not want the Attorney General to prosecute marijuana crimes.

In a new petition from Americans for Safe Access and Change.org, over 70,000 people and counting, are calling on the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop disseminating false information about medical cannabis immediately and ensure that any future information about medical cannabis treatment reflects medically-accurate and up-to-date facts.

The petition, which calls on President Obama to take immediate action, comes as the US Senate begins confirmation hearings for Senator Jeff Sessions’ (R-AL) appointment to Attorney General. Senator Sessions has actively opposed the use of medical and recreational cannabis saying, “good people don’t smoke marijuana” and argued that cannabis is a gateway drug that leads to cocaine and heroin use, something that has been resoundingly disproved by scientific evidence.

View the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/president-obama-make-the-dea-tell-the-truth-about-marijuana

Washington, DC — Today, Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to medical cannabis for therapeutic use and research, and TheAnswerPage, an international resource for providing accredited continuing medical education since 1998, launched the Cannabis Care Certification (CCC) program, an online program designed to provide quality information about medical cannabis to individuals who are starting or considering cannabis therapy, and healthcare professionals looking to learn about the endocannabinoid system and medical cannabis.

View more about the Cannabis Care Certification program here: cannabiscarecertification.org