ASA Activist Newsletter
In the August 2019 Issue:
- Annual State of the States Report Released at Legislative
Summit
- CME Credits on Cannabis with Cannabis Care Certification
Program
- Montana Laboratory Achieves Dual National Certification
- Congress Holds More Hearings on Reforming Cannabis Laws
- ASA Sonoma Chapter Sponsoring Symposium
- CLE Credits Part of NCIA Conference
- ASA Education Efforts Include CLE Credits at NCIA Conference
- Activist Profile: Jana Adams, Sonoma, California
- ACTION ALERT: Share the States Report with Your Lawmakers
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Annual 'State of the States' Report Released at Legislative
Summit
Americans for Safe Access released its annual report evaluating
state medical cannabis laws today at the Legislative Summit of the
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in Nashville.
Tennessee.
The 2019
State of the States Report: An Analysis of Medical Cannabis Access in
the United States grades each state’s laws and regulations on
how they affect patient access. The report finds that while medical
cannabis access has improved significantly nationwide since California
passed the first state law in 1996, state programs are still
struggling to serve all patients in need. Between the 2018 and 2019
legislative sessions, there were over 2,000 state bills introduced
that dealt with creating or amending existing cannabis programs in a
variety of ways.
The nearly 200-page report provides a detailed analysis of the
state of medical cannabis programs in 47 states, the District of
Columbia, and four territories on a ‘A’ to ‘F’ scale. Each state was
assessed in six categories: 1) Patient rights and civil protections;
2) Access to medicine; 3) Ease of navigation; 4) Functionality; 5)
Consumer safety and provider requirements; and 6) Medical cannabis as
a tool in combating the opioid epidemic. Special consideration was
given for developing policies to help alleviate the opioid crisis.
In addition to evaluating state medical cannabis program according
to ASA’s patient-focused grading rubric, the report also includes
responses from a survey of over 500 individual patients. This survey
revealed that even in states with adequate medical cannabis programs,
affordability has been one of the most consistent critiques of
patients and remains the single greatest challenge that patients face.
While some states have worked to clarify the role of health insurance
when it comes to medical cannabis, no state has yet adopted a law that
requires insurance companies to cover its costs.
Top marks for their medical cannabis programs went to Illinois and
Oregon, which each received an A-. Every state limiting access to only
CBD or low-THC products received a failing grade. Delays in
implementation meant a failing grade for West Virginia, too, despite
passing legislation for a comprehensive medical cannabis program.
“Thousands of lawmakers come to NCSL looking for policy ideas to
bring home, so we’re providing a tool for how best to serve their
medical cannabis patients,” said David Mangone, Director of Government
Affairs for Americans for Safe Access. “We’re releasing our State of
the States Report at the Legislative Summit because it suggests
specific improvements for each individual state medical cannabis
program, such as adopting product safety provisions, as well as model
legislation to guide lawmakers nationwide.”
ASA is distributing printed versions of the report among the
thousands of state legislators and staff attending the NCSL
Summit from August 4-8. ASA staff will be answering questions and
speaking to policy makers at booth number 1216.
ASA is also co-hosting two events in Nashville to raise awareness
of steps lawmakers can take to better serve their constituents who use
medical cannabis. The first reception is Sunday evening, August 4 and
is sponsored by WeedMaps. The second is on Wednesday evening, August 7
and is sponsored by Eaze. Both events are open to NCSL attendees and
the public. Anyone interested in attending these events can contact
[email protected].
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ASA Partners with TheAnswerPage.com on Continuing Medical
Education Credits
ASA has joined with TheAnswerPage.com to help educate medical
professionals on the therapeutic potential of cannabis for a variety
of conditions. Last month, ASA and TheAnswerPage.com launched a new
initiative to provide professionals with continuing medical education
(CME) credits through their Cannabis Care Certification (CCC) website,
which has offered education for patients and caregivers since
2016.
The CCC
Comprehensive Medical Marijuana Curriculum, created by The Answer
Page, starts with the endocannabinoid system and its interaction with
the components of the cannabis plant. The curriculum also addresses
clinical considerations for cannabinoid-based medicines, including
routes of administration, therapeutic use, drug metabolism,
physiologic and cognitive effects, potential risks, and drug
interactions.
“TheAnswerPage is the resource that I recommend for
accredited education on the endocannabinoid system, medical cannabis,
opioid prescribing, and pain medicine,” says Raphael Mechoulam, PhD,
the pioneering Israeli chemist who discovered THC.
The new CCC
curriculum for medical professionals was approved for CME credit under
the latest rules for dealing with controversial subjects. The course
provides physicians, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, nurses, and
psychologists with peer-reviewed, accredited educational content
appropriate for both those new to medical cannabis and those with
years of clinical experience.
Continuing education credits are approved through the Accreditation
Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), Accreditation
Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), American Association of Nurse
Practitioners (AANP), American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and
the American Psychological Association (APA).
A special $20 discount and other benefits are available to those
who enroll through the CCC
website using code CCC2019.
In addition to CME/CE credit, those benefits include a full year of
access to course materials and educational videos for patients and
caregivers, membership in the CCC program for medical professionals,
optional inclusion on a referral list for patients, and resources on
state and federal law.
“More than half of the country--33 states and counting--now has
access to medical cannabis. It is essential for medical professionals
to obtain education on the endocannabinoid system and medical cannabis
in order to provide needed guidance to their patients,” said Debbie
Churgai, Interim Director of Americans for Safe Access. “Patients look
to their health professionals for medical recommendations. Cannabis
should be treated like any other medicine that patients can discuss
openly with their health practitioners.”
More information:
www.CannabisCareCertification.org
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Montana Laboratory Achieves Dual National Certification
Last month, Stillwater
Laboratory in Olney, Montana became the first analytic laboratory
in that state to achieve dual certification through both ASA’s Patient
Focused Certification (PFC) program and the ISO/IEC 17025 standard of
the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA).
The dual certification is the result of a collaboration between ASA
and A2LA that began in October 2018 to expand PFC accreditation based
on the requirements of both ISO/IEC 17025 and the PFC standards.
"Stillwater Labs is honored to have received dual PFC/ISO 17025
accreditation,” said Dr. Ron Brost, Laboratory Director. “ISO
17025-compliant quality processes are the backbone of our lab, but the
cannabis-specific standards that come with PFC are a much-needed
addition to the emergent medical marijuana testing world. To this end,
PFC requirements have been adopted as an essential part of our toolbox
for continuous improvement. We look forward to our ongoing
relationship with A2LA and ASA in this very important segment of the
medical marijuana establishment.”
To achieve PFC certification, laboratories must pass two
assessments each cycle. Assessments involve a facility inspection and
document review for criteria such as method validation reports,
employee training records, and other requirements that are applicable
by law.
PFC’s nonprofit, third-party certification is based on guidelines
issued by the American Herbal Products Association and the American
Herbal Pharmacopoeia’s Cannabis Inflorescence monograph.
PFC also has partnerships with ASTM International and the
International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (ICCI).
“We’re excited to continue to grow the PFC program through our dual
accreditation with A2LA, and we’re thrilled that a lab of Stillwater’s
caliber is representing the program” said Heather Despres, the
Director of Patient Focused Certification.
Montana’s overall product safety rating was a “B” in ASA’s 2019
State of the States Report. Stillwater
Labs is working to improve the state’s rating by implementing the
best practices outlined under PFC certification to ensure quality
cannabis products are available to patients.
For more information about PFC certification, training, and
education, contact Heather Despres ([email protected])
or visit the PFC
website.
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Congress Holds More Hearings on Reforming Cannabis Laws
Bipartisan support in Congress for
resolving the conflicts between state cannabis laws and federal
prohibition has never been stronger. On July 10, the House Judiciary
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security held a hearing
called “Marijuana Laws in America: Racial Justice and the Need for
Reform.” The status quo had no defenders, with lawmakers and witnesses
from both sides of the aisle discussed how to change federal law to
harmonize with state medical cannabis and adult-use programs.
Among the proposals are the STATES
Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D, OR) with
25 bipartisan cosponsors, and the MORE
Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler with 32
bipartisan cosponsors. The STATES Act would shield participants in
state cannabis programs from prosecution under the federal Controlled
Substances Act. The MORE
Act goes further, legalizing cannabis nationally and addressing
the disproportionate impact marijuana prohibition has had on
communities of color in the U.S. by reinvesting in those communities
and expunging some criminal records.
ASA’s Government Affairs Director David Mangone was at the House
hearing to add the patient perspective. ASA also submitted its support
for a letter signed by a coalition of more than 100 organizations
including the ACLU and the NAACP urging Congress to pass the MORE
Act.
Hearings last month in the Senate included one in the Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on financial services for cannabis
businesses, and one in the Agriculture Committee on how the federal
government is implementing hemp and hemp extract legalization under
the 2018 Farm Bill.
More Information:
H.R.2093: Strengthening
the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act
H.R.3884: Marijuana
Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019
________________________
ASA Sonoma Chapter Sponsoring Symposium Aug. 10
Sonoma ASA is partnering with Whole Plant Access for Autism (WPA4A)
to host an educational symposium, Medical
Cannabis for Neurological Conditions, will be held Saturday,
August 10, from 10am-2:30pm at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in
Santa Rosa, California.
Pediatric cannabis specialists Dr. Bonni Goldstein and Dr. Bao Le
will be speaking, along with the cofounders of WPA4A and ASA’s PFC
Director, Heather Despres. Guest speakers include Joe Rogoway, Vicki
Lynn (caregiver/mother), and Martin Lee of Project CBD. Sonoma ASA
chapter chair Sara Shrader will be moderating the Q&A panel.
The symposium is a chance to learn more about how cannabis-based
medicines can be used to treat various neurological conditions. See
the activist profile of Jana Adams below for more info on how and why
the symposium was organized.
ASA chapters and affiliates can send event information to [email protected]
for mention in the ASA Activist Newsletter.
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ASA Education Efforts Include CLE Credits at NCIA Conference
ASA's education efforts last month
included participation in a panel offering Continuing Legal Education
credits for attorneys at the National Cannabis Industry Association
(NCIA) Cannabis Business Summit in San Jose, California.
ASA’s Director of Government Affairs David Mangone contributed
to Testing
Laboratories: Perspectives from the Marketplace, sponsored by the
International Cannabis Bar Association. Also on the panel were Mitzi
Vaughn, Chief Legal Officer, AltoTerra Capital Partners, Ltd.; Andrew
Subin, an attorney from Vermont Cannabis Solutions; Reggie Gaudino,
Ph.D., President, Director of R&D and Director of Intellectual
Property for Steep Hill Labs, Inc.; and Dr. Jayashree Mitra, a partner
at Zuber Lawler & Del Duca LLP.
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Activist Profile: Jana Adams, Sonoma, California
Jana Adams is on a two-pronged mission to educate people about what
medical cannabis can do for children with seizure disorders. On
the one hand, she’s spent the last few years explaining to California
lawmakers why state law needs to accommodate medical cannabis in
schools. On the other, she’s sharing with others the knowledge and
resources that were so hard for her to come by as she looked for
solutions for her daughter Brooke.
Brooke hadn’t even reached
her first birthday when the seizures started. In March 2014, she was
diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, a rare, severe seizure disorder. Soon
she was on three seizure medications but still having episodes that
lasted up to three hours. Attempts to control them at the hospital led
toher being given so much medication she couldn’t breathe on her own,
coded, and had to be intubated. The local hospital transferred her to
Oakland for more advanced care.
“It was the scariest time in my life,”
Jana says, “as I watched her seize over and over again, even after
getting multiple doses of strong
anti-seizure medications.”
After a few days in the pediatric
ICU in Oakland, Brooke was able to go home, now with four medications
to take twice a day. Jana quit her job to be a fulltime caregiver for
Brooke and try to figure out a treatment plan.
A mutual friend
introduced her to another parent of a child with Dravet Syndrome,
Jason David, who had been exploring cannabis treatments after doctors
had said there was nothing more they could do for his son, Jayden.
Through trial and error with various types of cannabis extracts,
Jason developed a cannabis oil he calls Jayden’s Juice that has proven
effective when nothing else worked. At an event for parents Jason put
on in Modesto, Jana heard from doctors, specialists, and other parents
about the potential cannabis holds for treating
neurological conditions. She took her sister-in-law, a nurse, so she
could understand and explain the medical side.
“It was just
the information I needed to talk to Brooke’s neurologist,” Jana
says.
Clinical trials were then underway for Epidiolex, the CBD
extract developed by GW Pharmaceuticals, but Brooke didn’t qualify to
participate because she was too young at not yet two, and her
seizures, though they lasted for hours, came only every five weeks.
Brooke’s doctor suggested adding a fifth medication, Stiripentol, but
Jana and her husband refused. Both were suspicious of cannabis, but it
was time to try it.
In September 2014, Brooke got a
recommendation from a local physician, and Jana registered as
her caregiver. The CBD variety another parent recommended didn’t work,
but Jason David visited Santa Rosa that December, and Jana started
Brooke on Jayden’s Juice.
The seizures dropped
by half.
They went back to the neurologist to talk about
weaning Brooke off the benzodiazepines. As she tapered off, they add
some THC to ease the withdrawal symptoms. She reduced her previous
medications by half and was able to go off the ketogenic diet that may
help control Dravet Syndrome.
Once Brooke turned three, she got
an IEP as a special education student, but the school district
refused to allow her to attend a public preschool because of her need
to have cannabis oil with her as a rescue medicine for when seizures
started.
“At first, they just offered to send a teacher for
an hour a day, but we fought all summer trying to find a preschool,”
Jana says. “We negotiated an agreement for the district to pay for a
private preschool, a one-on-one nurse to attend, and special
help.”
Last September, a
judge ruled against the district’s arguments for excluding Brooke
and said they have to allow her to attend, and her nurse can give her
the cannabis oil as needed.
The district is obliged to provide
transportation to school for students, but they refused to allow
Brooke on a school bus, even with her nurse in attendance, because the
school is a “drug-free zone.” In November the district agreed to send
a bus for Brooke and her nurse after it had dropped off all the other
kids at school.
“It worked but just kinda seems silly,” Jana
says. “She’s with a one-on-one nurse, so the medicine is
pretty secure. It’s a rescue medicine, so she has to have it with her
to stop seizures when they start.”
Last year, Brooke was in a
special education kindergarten classroom with eight students, but this
fall she will transition to an inclusion classroom with general
education students.
Jana has been pursuing a change in law to
accommodate other children like Brooke, encouraging state lawmakers
such as Sens. Jerry Hill and Mike McGuire to advance legislation that
would allow medical cannabis in public schools.
“When Senator
Hill said he didn’t have enough support for his bill, we decided to
take the case public, to help other families,” says Jana. “It’s a
child’s right to go to school.” 
Brooke has three older
siblings, ages 13, 15 and 18. The demands of Brooke’s care have meant
the family has changed vacations and other routines, often at the
expense of the other children, but they understand her needs, and the
turn to cannabis. The oldest came home from college to join Jana
at the ASA/California NORML lobby day in Sacramento on May
1.
“Going away and coming back helped him see how much
it’s changed her quality of life,” Jana says. “He sent me a note
saying ‘thanks for doing so much for Brooke.’”
Even Brooke’s
13-year-old sister understands what’s at stake. She’s also in a
caregiver role, administering cannabis oil when needed. She even
filmed the seizure that was shown during a Today
Show segment about Brooke,and intervened with a history teacher
who made disparaging comments about cannabis.
“Medical cannabis
has been life changing for us,” Jana says. “We couldn’t go camping for
fear of being helicoptered out. Now the seizures will stop within
minutes, so we can contain it.”
Since Brooke’s case became
public, Jana has connected with parents across the country about
treatment and lobbying to get bills passed in New Mexico, Colorado and
New Hampshire. To help educate folks closer to home in Santa Rosa,
Jana helped organize the August 10 symposium with Dr. Bonni Goldstein,
Brooke’s physician from Los Angeles, and other experts. Attendees at
the symposium will also have a chance to learn how to lobby from other
parents who have worked to get bills passed in the other
states.
“We were on Dr. Goldstein’s waiting list for two
years, but it was worth it to have the benefit of her experience,”
Jana says. “I wanted to have this event with a knowledgeable doctor so
other parents could see if cannabis might be something to try with
their child. This event is to give back what others have given to
us.”
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ACTION ALERT: Send ASA’s States Report
to Your Lawmakers
Your state lawmakers need to know how to better meet the needs of
medical cannabis patients. Use the link below to send them ASA State
of the States Report so they have the tools to improve safe access in
your state. It’s quick and easy, so take action today!
Go to www.safeaccessnow.org/share_sos2019.
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