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Millions of Medical Cannabis Patients Have Federal Rights.

Now we need YOUR help to ensure those rights are respected and expanded to all patients! 

On April 28, 2026, the Department of Justice issued AG Order No. 6754-2026, recognizing state medical cannabis programs as part of the healthcare landscape and recognizing patients participating in those programs as using cannabis under a lawful medical framework. The Order recognized state medical cannabis patient certifications as equivalent to prescriptions and reclassified cannabis produced through qualifying state medical cannabis programs as a Schedule III substance.

For the first time since California passed the nation’s first medical cannabis law 30 years ago, patients participating in qualifying state medical cannabis programs are no longer violating federal drug laws. This change provides a basis for protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

This is potentially great news for patients, but in the U.S., you only have rights if you exercise them.

Most patients do not know what these protections mean or what to do when an employer, landlord, hospital, nursing facility, or government agency discriminates against them. These institutions are unlikely to change on their own. The Attorney General’s Order did not direct federal agencies to update their discriminatory policies, and the Department of Justice has not provided the private sector with clear guidance for recognizing patients’ rights.

Without immediate pressure, education, and oversight, outdated policies will remain in place, and patients will continue to pay the price.

ASA knows firsthand that medical cannabis laws do not implement themselves. For 24 years, we have held agencies, institutions, and elected officials accountable when they ignored the law or refused to respect patients.

We are already building the infrastructure needed for this next phase of the fight.

ASA has issued implementation guidance for the Trump Administration, Congress, & State Policymakers.

We have produced resources for patients & caregivers, medical cannabis providers, employers, landlords, and service providers.

ASA has done media outreach and published opinion pieces. 

And even built a discrimination intake platform.

Now we need your help to get these tools into patients’ hands, respond when their rights are violated, and force institutions to update policies that should already have changed.

Please donate today to help ASA:

• Educate medical cannabis patients about their federal protections

• Document and respond to discrimination

• Train employers, landlords, healthcare workers, businesses, and government administrators

• Hold federal and state agencies accountable

• Give patients the information and support they need to assert their rights

Patient discrimination happens every day. It can cost someone a job, a home, access to healthcare, or custody of a child. It can also be humiliating and isolating, especially when patients do not know that the law has changed or that someone is prepared to stand with them.

We spent more than two decades fighting for the federal government to recognize medical cannabis patients. We cannot allow agencies and private institutions to ignore what patients have finally won.

The law has changed. Now we must make sure policies, institutions, and everyday practices change with it.

Please donate today and help ASA turn this historic federal victory into meaningful protections for every medical cannabis patient.

In Solidarity, 

Steph Sherer 

Founder & President 

Americans for Safe Access 

P.S. Millions of patients have new federal rights, but those rights will mean little if no one has the resources to enforce them. DONATE NOW!