Americans For Safe Access 2019 Annual Report: “State of The States Report”

Each year, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) analyzes, summarizes, and critiques legislation and regulations as they become law and develops this report to assess how these programs are serving the needs of patients. In 2014, when we first started writing this report, only 22 states were analyzed and graded. Now, six years later, we are analyzing 47 states in over 50 categories surrounding Patient Rights and Civil Protection from Discrimination, Access to Medicine, Ease of Navigation, Functionality of the Program, and Consumer Safety and Provider Requirements.

Through this report, ASA also recommends how states can improve programs, and we take great pride in knowing that these recommendations are frequently followed and incorporated by regulators and policymakers. While we are excited to see the number of states with medical cannabis programs increase, we know this patchwork of laws is not working to provide access to everyone who needs this medicine. Patients can still not travel to other states with their medicine, and some states only offer protections that cover a small subset of patients using a certain type of medicine. The types of medicine available, method of administration, purchase limits, training requirements for staff, labeling requirements, etc. are different depending on the state that you are lucky, or unlucky, enough to live in.

With international rescheduling of cannabis on the horizon, it is time the United States follow the lead of other countries, and in particular, those nations where the regulation and control of cannabis is placed in a centralized federal agency. For a look at our recommendations on how to End the Federal Conflict, through a federal Office of Medical Cannabis read Chapter 7 of our Medical Cannabis Briefing Book: https://www.safeaccessnow.org/briefingbook116.

Table of Contents

MEDICAL CANNABIS BY THE NUMBERS ……………. 4
EVOLUTION OF THIS REPORT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..7
SCORING UPDATE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
STATE-BY-STATE GRADES
………………………………….. 11
HOW STATES WERE EVALUATED
………………………..11
MEDICAL CANNABIS TIMELINE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
THE MEDICAL USE OF CANNABIS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

CATEGORY 1
PATIENT RIGHTS AND CIVIL PROTECTIONS FROM DISCRIMINATION……16
CATEGORY 2
ACCESS TO MEDICINE………………………………………………… 20
CATEGORY 3
EASE OF NAVIGATION…………………………………………………. 26
CATEGORY 4
FUNCTIONALITY…………………………………………………………. 30
CATEGORY 5
CONSUMER SAFETY AND  PROVIDER REQUIREMENTS .34

STATE MEDICAL CANNABIS PROGRAM

REGULATIONS AND OVERSIGHT ………………………………. 44
STATE REPORT CARDS
…………………………………………………46
CONCLUSION
…………………………………………………………….. 158
APPENDIX 1 UNIVERSAL IMPROVEMENTS &

MODEL LEGISLATION ………………………………………………… 164
APPENDIX 2 RECOMMENDATION TO REGULATORS…… 172
APPENDIX 3 THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S ROLE…….. 174

STATE REPORT CARDS

 

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