Cannabis Rescheduling Is Progress. You Can Shape Its Impact.
Federal cannabis policy is undergoing significant changes. This year's historic federal action on medical cannabis rescheduling represents progress patients have fought for decades to achieve, but important decisions about the future of medical cannabis remain unresolved. Broader rescheduling is still pending, and federal policymakers have yet to establish comprehensive protections for patients, strengthen product safety standards, or create a framework for integrating cannabis medicines into healthcare.
This historic progress has renewed national attention to medical cannabis policy, but it has also prompted opponents of reform to use public safety concerns to challenge rescheduling and advance more restrictive policies. If we take a wait-and-see approach to federal reform, we risk allowing others to define both the problems and the solutions while overlooking decades of patient experience, scientific research, and practical progress in cannabis safety.
The incoming Congress will have significant influence over whether rescheduling translates into meaningful improvements for patients. We have an opportunity to shape those decisions before its members take office. By elevating the researchers, advocates, and organizations already developing cannabis safety solutions, we can show how legitimate public health concerns can be addressed through better policies and practices. At the same time, asking congressional candidates to make clear commitments to patients can put the protections still needed on their agendas before they are elected.
Together, these efforts give us an opportunity to lead the discussion about how federal reforms can deliver stronger patient protections, safer products, and better healthcare.
Join Us in Shaping What Comes Next.
By celebrating the changemakers advancing cannabis safety, engaging candidates seeking federal office, and participating in discussions about the lessons of medical cannabis reform, we can bring the knowledge, experience, and solutions developed over the past three decades into decisions about the future.
Celebrate the Changemakers: Vote in the Cannabis Safety Awards
Much of the national discussion about cannabis safety focuses on risks and unanswered questions, often overlooking the people already developing practical solutions. During Cannabis Safety Month, the public nominated 66 individuals and organizations across 17 categories for the 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards, recognizing contributions that improve cannabis safety and support responsible medical cannabis policy.
The nominees include researchers advancing our understanding of cannabis' benefits and risks, educators improving patient and professional knowledge, and innovators strengthening product safety and consumer protections. Others are advancing impaired-driving prevention, public education, and patient advocacy.
The Cannabis Safety Awards are about more than recognition. By bringing these contributions to a wider audience, ASA aims to connect the nominees' work with policymakers, healthcare professionals, and others who can build on their solutions. Their accomplishments show how public health protections and safe access to medical cannabis can advance together.
Every nominee deserves recognition. Your vote elevates their work beyond the awards.
Public voting closes Sunday, October 25, 2026. Explore the nominees, cast your vote, and share their work to bring greater attention to the solutions shaping the future of cannabis safety.
CANNABIS SAFETY AWARD RESOURCES:
Put Patient Protections on the Agenda Before Election Day
The next Congress will inherit a rapidly changing federal cannabis landscape, along with unresolved questions about the legal status of cannabis, patient protections, research, and access to medical care.Although this year's federal action represents significant progress, rescheduling alone will not establish the comprehensive national medical cannabis program patients need. Legislative action will still be necessary to address gaps in federal protections and establish a framework that recognizes the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and researchers.
With Election Day approaching on November 3, there is an opportunity to bring these unresolved questions directly to the people seeking to represent voters in Congress.
Through ASA's Compassionate Candidate Campaign, candidates from every political party are invited to sign the Compassionate Pledge 2026, publicly committing to advance comprehensive federal medical cannabis legislation, protect patients' rights, expand research, and support the integration of cannabis medicines into healthcare.
The campaign gives candidates a chance to explain their positions while letting voters learn how those seeking federal office intend to address medical cannabis policy.
Candidates are applying for a job representing you. Now is the time to ask where they stand. Constituents can contact candidates running in their congressional districts and states, ask whether they will sign the Compassionate Pledge, and raise questions about medical cannabis at town halls, candidate forums, and campaign events.
These conversations do not require policy expertise. A simple email, phone call, or question at a public event can bring medical cannabis into a candidate's discussion of healthcare priorities and create a public record of their commitments. The goal is to make sure the next Congress arrives knowing that patients are paying attention and that meaningful federal reform must address more than cannabis' scheduling status. Medical cannabis policy must also confront the barriers patients face in obtaining safe, reliable, and legally protected care.
COMPASSIONATE CANDIDATE RESOURCES:
- FIND THE CANDIDATES RUNNING TO REPRESENT YOU
- EXPLORE ASA'S COMPASSIONATE CANDIDATE CAMPAIGN & THE COMPASSIONATE PLEDGE
Join ASA for Cannabis Safety: Fears & Facts on October 29
Exploring 30 Years of Progress, Confronting Today's Challenges & Celebrating Those Shaping Tomorrow's Solutions
Featuring the Announcement of the 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards Winners
As we approach the 30th anniversary of the first statewide medical cannabis law, Americans for Safe Access is bringing together the lessons of three decades of patient-driven reform with today's questions facing policymakers.
On October 29, 2026, join ASA for Cannabis Safety: Fears & Facts, a special webinar examining what 30 years of medical cannabis reform have taught us, the challenges that remain, and the expertise needed to develop safer, more effective policies.
Thirty years after patients helped launch a new era of medical cannabis reform, federal policy is undergoing significant change. Renewed attention to cannabis' medical value is accompanied by concerns about product safety, health risks, youth exposure, and impaired driving. Addressing these concerns requires credible research, effective public health strategies, and an understanding of what patients, healthcare professionals, and safety experts have learned through decades of experience.
Cannabis Safety: Fears & Facts will explore how medical cannabis reform has evolved, what the evidence tells us about today's challenges, and how the lessons of the past 30 years can inform the next phase of federal policy. The discussion will also examine opportunities to strengthen public health protections while preserving the progress patients have fought to achieve.
The webinar will conclude with the announcement of the 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards winners, recognizing individuals and organizations whose research, advocacy, education, and innovations are turning cannabis safety concerns into practical solutions. As federal policymakers consider what comes next, this event offers an opportunity to connect the medical cannabis movement's achievements with the research, expertise, and solutions needed to guide future decisions.
Join us as we honor three decades of patient-driven progress, recognize today's cannabis safety leaders, and look toward a future where public policy is shaped by facts, not fear. LEARN MORE & REGISTER FOR CANNABIS SAFETY: FEARS & FACTS
Turning Federal Progress Into Lasting Patient Protections
For more than two decades, ASA supporters have demonstrated that organized patients and advocates can change laws, build public understanding, and shape healthcare policy. This year's federal progress reflects decades of work, but the decisions ahead will determine how that progress translates into meaningful improvements for patients. Thirty years of medical cannabis reform have demonstrated what patients and advocates can achieve. The challenge now is to ensure that federal recognition of cannabis' medical value leads to policies that protect patients, strengthen public health, and support the integration of cannabis medicines into healthcare.
Turning federal recognition of medical cannabis into meaningful improvements for patients will require continued research, public education, policy development, and advocacy long after this election. ASA is working to bring practical cannabis safety solutions to national attention, advance comprehensive medical cannabis policies, and ensure patients' needs remain central to the decisions ahead. Sustaining that work requires the support of people who believe that patients deserve safe, legal, and reliable access to cannabis for therapeutic use.
Your donation helps ASA continue the work of turning decades of advocacy into lasting protections and a healthcare system that recognizes the needs of medical cannabis patients.
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