Unite for National Medical Cannabis

We’re an Americans for Safe Access (ASA) Action Group uniting business stakeholders, professionals, and investors who believe in the power of cannabis medicine—and who are ready to finish what patients started: building a national medical framework integrated into the U.S. healthcare system.

Federal cannabis reform has been more talk than action. Despite all the headlines, patients are still being evicted from housing, losing jobs, blocked from care at the VA, and struggling with access to medicine. Businesses are still stuck with confusing rules, inconsistent safety standards, and barriers that keep research from moving forward.

The Solution: A comprehensive national medical cannabis program that sets standards, stabilizes the market, integrates with healthcare, and protects patients—everywhere. The Good News: Americans for Safe Access has been working on this for over 2 decades! 

Cannabis Policy isn't at a Standstill; we are losing ground! 

On September 10, 2025, the House Appropriations Committee advanced a CJS bill that would let DEA interfere with state programs and block a presidential determination on scheduling. Patients are pushing back. It’s time for businesses and professionals to stand with them—publicly and materially.

Medical cannabis programs were established as compassionate stopgaps to remove patients from the battlefield of the war on drugs, but after almost 30 years, many are at risk of collapse due to inadequate federal support and state frameworks that prioritize adult use. Patients remain vulnerable to eviction from federally funded housing, loss of employment due to drug testing, custody challenges for parents, exclusion from protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and barriers for veterans within the VA healthcare system.

Meanwhile, federal prohibition perpetuates inconsistent product quality, fragmented labeling standards, and safety risks from unregulated markets. Without a national framework, patients and businesses alike operate within a patchwork system that hinders research, innovation, commerce, and healthcare integration.

Building a Patient-Centered Future

Cannabis is a botanical medicine, and existing systems for drug approval were never designed for complex plant-based therapies. Rescheduling cannabis may be a step forward, but it also highlights the need for a new regulatory path—one that integrates cannabis into healthcare without forcing it into frameworks built for single-compound pharmaceuticals.

ASA has long advocated for a patient-centric national approach, including removing criminal penalties, creating regulatory pathways for medical access, establishing safety standards and clinical guidelines, ensuring cannabis is recognized as a legitimate medicine within the healthcare system, and establishing a new Schedule VI classification and an Office of Medical Cannabis & Cannabinoid Control (OMC) within HHS to oversee cannabis and cannabinoid medicines.

A national medical cannabis program would stabilize demand, provide tools for medical professionals, guarantee dignity for patients, and allow U.S. businesses to compete globally in a field where other countries are moving forward rapidly. The new Action Group will help deliver that future by mobilizing business leaders and professionals to advocate along with patients for Congress to act.

Join us!

ASA Action Groups support the work ASA is already doing! Cannabis Businesses & Professionals United for National Medical Cannabis (UNMC) will: 

• • ‘ORGANIZE LEADERSHIP: Mobilize owners, operators, professionals, and investors to back a national medical program.
  • COORDINATE ADVOCACY: ASA-led briefings, Hill outreach, and professional association recruitment based on patient outcomes and clinical realities.
  • ADVANCE STANDARDS & SAFETY: Support consistent testing, labeling, and product safety across jurisdictions.
  • AMPLIFY PATIENT MESSAGES: Earned media, op-eds, and cannabis & healthcare sector communications.
  • RAISE FUNDS FOR ASA'S ADVOCACY: Generate financial support so ASA can continue leading national policy, regulatory monitoring, and patient-centered reform.

ASA’s mission is more urgent than ever. If your business believes in medical cannabis, patient access, and building a sustainable and equitable future for the cannabis marketplace, join us.

Call to Action

Cannabis Businesses & Professionals United for National Medical Cannabis invites leaders across the cannabis sector, including business owners and operators, supply chain workforce, medical and healthcare professionals, insurers, attorneys, accountants, and investors, to join this effort and help finish what patients and advocates started:

The groundwork has been laid to move beyond piecemeal reform. It’s a national medical cannabis program—one that provides clarity for researchers, stability for businesses, tools for healthcare professionals, and dignity for patients.

Such a program would be transformative:

For patients: safe, consistent, affordable access to medicine and life-changing legal protections

For the healthcare sector: Education and resources for clinicians, integration and innovation for overburdened systems, and added stability to profitability.

For society: a shift from prohibition to science, from stigma to dignity, and from fragmentation to a unified approach.

Cannabis Businesses & Professionals United for National Medical Cannabis Q & A

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