+ COVID BY JORDAN PERSON
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the mission of ensuring safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. The organization began in 2002 and has been helping educate people, change laws, and get more research out there about the therapeutic benefits of medical cannabis. “We also care about safety, and we want to make sure patients are using cannabis safely and legally throughout the United States,” explains Debbie Churgai, Interim Director for ASA. GRAM sat down with Churgai to discuss how they are handling COVID-19 for patients throughout the U.S. She tells us, “When it first started, patients were really concerned about there being a lack of access to their medicine. So, one of the first things we did was host a stakeholders call. We contacted a bunch of people: patients, industry professionals, medical professionals, legal professionals, and within two hours, 15-20 people were on the phone strategizing. From that phone call, we then created a letter that we
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sent to Governors, medical cannabis commissions, and health departments urging them to keep medical cannabis businesses as essential, not just the dispensary but also cultivation and manufacturers so that there was no stop in production or supply chain.” “It also meant, we needed to make sure patients were receiving safe products, that employees were also being kept safe. Then we started thinking about delivery for states that did not have that yet, and the states that did not yet offer telehealth - we wanted to encourage the changing of regulations at least temporarily to help accommodate the patients. As well as things like tax relief and adding additional caregivers, it wasn’t just about keeping businesses open, it was about making sure that patients were being protected and that products and employees were safe.” In Colorado, we have seen dispensaries adapt to this crisis by adding hand sanitizer at checkout counters,
