ASA Activist Newsletter
In the February 2022 Issue:
- ASA Releases State of the States Report
- Mississippi Enacts New Medical Cannabis Program
- New Cannabis Enigma Podcasts Include Women’s Health
- Cannabis Patient Care Magazine Features ASA Activists
- SF Bay Area Chapter Celebrates 20 Years
- Activist Profile: Crista Eggers, Nebraska
- Action Alert: Share the SOS Report with Your State Lawmakers
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ASA Releases State of the States Report
Americans for Safe Access released this month its 8th annual report
grading the effectiveness of each state cannabis program in the US. A
virtual press
briefing on the report was held on February 22.
ASA’s 2021
State of the States Report: An Analysis of Medical Cannabis Access in
the United States (SOS Report) reveals that while many states
continue to improve, no state is close to doing all it can to serve
the needs of its patients.
The SOS Report evaluates state cannabis programs using a
rubric that reflects the key issues affecting patients. Grades for
each state are assigned based on scores in over 100 categories,
including barriers to access, civil protections, affordability, health
and social equity, and product safety as well as penalties for harmful
policies. New for this edition is an updated rubric that puts more
emphasis on civil protections for patients.
At 25 years since the first medical cannabis law went into effect,
the average grade among states was only 44%, with the highest score
being 76%.
“Without legislative improvements in state medical cannabis
programs, millions of patients are left with limited or no
access,” said Debbie Churgai, executive director of Americans for Safe
Access. “This report should inspire a renewed commitment to patients
by policymakers to improve state laws and remove the barrier of
federal prohibition once and for all."
ASA distributes the report each year to state legislators and
regulators in every state, as well as hundreds of health organizations
and patient organizations. The SOS report is a key tool for activists
and policy makers working to improve the implementation of medical
cannabis laws in their states.
"Americans for Safe Access’ State of the States report has been an
important resource for me as I work to ensure all Pennsylvanians have
access to medical cannabis,” said Pennsylvania State Representative
Chris Rabb. “As the largest cannabis patient advocacy
group, their recommendations have helped me hone in on issues that
impact patients, and work to pass improvements to better their
lives. The report has also been a critical tool in educating my
colleagues on the shortfalls of the current program and why
improvements are necessary for Pennsylvanians.”
The report offers solutions for improvement to programs including
legislative and regulatory language. Since its first edition in 2014,
advocates and state legislators have utilized ASA’ report to pass new
legislation and regulations to improve laws.
To learn about the top 5 takeaways from this year’s report, see
ASA’s blog: www.safeaccessnow.org/sos21_blog1.
ASA also hosted a free public webinar on the report on February 23.
That webinar can be viewed online at www.safeaccessnow.org/sos21_webinar_record.
The report and information about it are available at www.safeaccessnow.org/sos.
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Mississippi Enacts New Medical Cannabis Program
On February 2, Mississippi became the 37th state to adopt a
meaningful medical cannabis law. The new law, crafted by the state
legislature, will allow limited access for some patients. It replaces
a ballot measure more than 74% Mississippi voters approved in November
2020.
Mississippi law allows the state legislature to reject voter
initiatives, and it did. On January 26, they instead passed SB 2095, a
watered-down bill that imposes limits on both patients and the
businesses that will serve them. THC content will be restricted, and
patients may purchase no more than 1/8th of an ounce of
cannabis a day, and no more than 3 ounces for a month. Municipalities
will be able to ban medical cannabis businesses entirely, and, in
those jurisdictions that permit cannabis businesses to operate, they
will be kept in industrial or agricultural zones.
Qualified patients will have the right to possess and purchase
cannabis, but little else. The law does not protect parental, housing
or employment rights, though it contains provisions allowing minors to
receive medical cannabis at schools.
State agencies have 6 months to begin licensing cannabis
businesses, so patients can expect an operational system by summer
2022.
For more about Mississippi’s new law and why it represents a case
study in legislative obstruction, see ASA’s blog at www.safeaccessnow.org/ms_law_casestudy.
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New Cannabis
Enigma Podcasts include Women’s Health
New Cannabis Enigma podcasts are available. Recent episodes
include Codi
Peterson interviewing Melanie
Bone, MD, about cannabis and
women's health, the role of minorities in cannabis with Steven
Philpott, Jr., and the potential of cannabis in treating traumatic
brain injuries with nurse Nikki Lawley, who was profiled in ASA’s April
2021 newsletter.
Produced by The
Cannigma in partnership with Americans
For Safe Access, podcast episodes are available at https://www.safeaccessnow.org/podcasts.
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Cannabis Patient Care Magazine Features ASA Activists
Veterans
using cannabis for PTSD and mental health is the focus of the December
2021 issue of Cannabis
Patient Care magazine, and several ASA activists are
featured. Free access to Cannabis Patient Care is one of the perks of
ASA
membership.
Among the featured advocates are Doug Distasio and Todd Scattini,
both retired U.S. service members who are now working to ensure safe
access to medical cannabis for their fellow veterans. Regular readers
of the ASA newsletter may remember their inspiring stories from their
activist profiles in October
2020 and February
2019, respectively.
Also featured are two nurses who have worked with ASA, Cherissa
Jackson, who served multiple tours as a combat nurse and was profiled
in ASA’s November
2020 newsletter, and Elizabeth Mack, who collaborated with ASA on
a cancer
care webinar in August 2021.
Scattini and Jackson were also among the distinguished panelists
for ASA’s Veterans’ Roundtable in 2020, which can be viewed on the ASA
website at www.safeaccessnow.org/vets20_video.
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Bay Area ASA Chapter Celebrates 20 Years
The San Francisco Bay
Area chapter of Americans for Safe Access marked its 20th
anniversary this month with an online party. The celebration, which
included a photo
montage of memories, was held as a virtual gathering due to
Covid.
The event, sponsored by Eaze, Sava, Apothecarium and BASA, included
a raffle, a DJ who has played at Bay Area ASA events since the
beginning, comedy and special guests.
“It was just like old times,” said longtime chapter activist Tony
Bowles, who was a plaintiff in one of ASA’s first successful lawsuits
against a state agency. “Comedian Ngaio
Bealum brought the laughs, DJ Selekta Lou Sanchez brought the
tunes, and Joe Sweetleaf brought the compassion -- plus there was a
memorial to Jake Sassaman by Jacqueline Patterson.”
The Bay Area chapter of ASA is the oldest and most active in the
US. ASA was founded 20 years ago in response to a coordinated set of
federal raids and arrests targeting locally licensed medical cannabis
providers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“The fight for safe access is not over,” said Bowles. “We are
already getting the sense that this cannabis legislative cycle is
going to be busy. We look forward to harnessing this energy as we move
forward.”
See the historical photo montage on YouTube
at youtu.be/xk2JX4EyS5Y.
Follow Bay Area ASA at facebook.com/BayAreaASA.
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Activist Profile: Crista Eggers, Omaha, Nebraska
Most medical cannabis activists become advocates for safe access
because they’ve had direct experience treating a medical condition
with cannabis. Crista Eggers is not one of those. She became a
committed activist because cannabis is not available at all in her
state, even for her seriously ill child with intractable epilepsy.
“We are in a state where there is no medical cannabis law, where
there is no CBD law, so we still do not know if this is an option that
can help our child,” says Crista. “But it’s helping people like our
son in states next to us, so we hope to bring that option, that
access, that right to Nebraska.”
Nebraska represents one of the rare holdouts among US
states in forbidding use of cannabis even by the seriously ill. Yet
it’s available in its neighboring states.
Colton, now age 7, suffers from constant seizures on a daily basis,
ranging from the violent tonic-clonic to absence and complex partial
seizures. Since he was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 2, Colton has
been prescribed 20 different medications in nearly 100 different
combinations. Nothing has worked. In fact, his condition has worsened,
and many of the medications have produced side effects including
nausea, dizziness and headaches. The worst was a serious allergic
reaction that put Colton in the hospital for 11 days.
“His body shutdown from a medication that is studied and FDA
approved. We came close to losing our child because of this
medication,” says Crista. “Every day my stomach churns knowing we’re
making the decision that we think is best, which is continuing these
meds, even though they don’t seem to be doing a lot.”
Colton’s doctors say they’ve exhausted all available pharmaceutical
treatments, all anti-convulsant and epilepsy medications. Except
cannabis, because it’s not legal in Nebraska. Obtaining it illegally
could mean criminal charges for Crista and loss of parental
rights.
“We don’t want to be criminals, but unfortunately so many people
are forced to become criminals as patients,” says Crista. “We’re
struggling to know if we’re helping him with these meds or hurting
him, particularly now that he’s older and can tell us how incredibly
sick he feels.”
The number of medications Colton takes require constant bloodwork
to monitor their effects, bloodwork that could reveal if he had been
given any cannabis-based medications.
In 2019, once it became clear the doctors in their state couldn’t
offer any more help, the Eggers went to Minnesota to see epilepsy
specialists. After testing Colton, the subject of cannabis came
up.
“Those conversations were very limited and very difficult,” says
Crista. “The doctors said, ‘I would suggest you either move to a state
where medical cannabis is legal, so that we can try this for Colton,
or you go back home and you try to get it legalized.”
Rather than become another family of medical refugees, the Eggers
decided to return home and fight for safe access for Colton and other
families.
“I thought, how hard can that be?” remembers Crista. “I don’t think
many people would disagree that, watching a child suffer, if there is
something that could give even the slightest hope of helping them,
everybody would be on board with that. Who would be against that?”
Two days after that conversation with the doctors, Crista was at
the capitol in Lincoln testifying at a hearing on a medical cannabis
bill introduced by state Senator
Anna Wishart.
“Really quickly, I realized this was far bigger than my child or my
story of trying to help my child,” says Crista. “I met many parents
who have been fighting this for years, many who have become criminals
to help their child and others like us who don’t want to risk losing
our children, but also know that’s what’s happening is not right.”
That’s when Crista
became a volunteer for Nebraskans
for Medical Marijuana and became active in the legislative
process.
Crista and other Nebraska advocates thought they had a good shot at
changing their state’s law through a 2020 ballot initiative.
But after they submitted signatures and it was certified by
Nebraska’s secretary of state, the state
supreme court stepped in to remove it from the ballot. In answer
to a lawsuit filed by a local sheriff, the court ruled in a split
decision that the voter initiative violated a requirement that such
measures only deal with a single subject.
In the majority’s view, creating a right to use and possess
medicinal cannabis was a different purpose than creating a system for
regulating the production and distribution of cannabis, though the two
dissenting justices wrote that the court had “squeezed the concept of
single subject” so much that they had diminished the rights of
voters.
After that disappointment, Nebraska advocates have returned with a
pair
of complementary initiatives that would together accomplish what
the 2020 measure intended.
“Being Nebraska, we’re going on nine legislative sessions since
medical cannabis was brought up,” says Crista. “We’ve had some
educational opportunities, and the advocacy in the state, the support
is strong, but it’s tough to look in the face all the people who’ve
been fighting so long.”
Crista never envisioned that she would take on something like
medical cannabis advocacy, but her involvement has helped her deal
with her family’s challenges that tragically echo in the stories she
hears from other parents.
“To be a part of something in the midst of that pain and suffering,
to be working toward bringing greater awareness and making lives
better, that’s been something I can hold on to,” says Crista.
“Sometimes you can see measurable change, even just in conversations
with people. That can be very therapeutic.”
Through her advocacy, Crista has come to recognize that her family
is not alone in this. She has seen how the stories of families like
hers help change the narrative and educate people, breaking down the
stigma.
“No matter who you are, we can all agree that we want to make human
suffering better,” says Crista. “That’s why it’s such an
honor to be in this space and to be working with an organization that
is telling those stories.”
Signature gathering is underway for Nebraska’s 2022 ballot
initiatives to establish safe access. To find out more, visit the
website for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana at nebraskamarijuana.org
or follow them on facebook at facebook.com/NebraskaMJ.
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Action Alert: Share the
SOS Report with Your Lawmakers
ASA’s annual State of the States Report is a key lobbying tool to
help show lawmakers what can be done to improve safe access for
patients in their state. It just takes a few minutes to share the
report with your state lawmakers and urge them to adopt better
legislation and regulations. Take action today at https://www.safeaccessnow.org/sos21_action.
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