Missouri’s Medical Cannabis Program Given a C+ by Advocacy Group

The advocacy group found little improvement in medical cannabis programs across the country

Written by ADAM GOLDSTEIN

This story originally appeared in the Missouri Independent and has been edited for length.

Areport from a patient advocacy group gave Missouri’s medical cannabis program a C+, or a middling 65.14 percent.

Americans for Safe Access issued its annual State of the States report earlier this month. The organization, a nonprofit, has put out the document to advocates and state policymakers since 2014 as a tool to “assess and improve medical cannabis programs.”

“Despite a slow and rocky start to the implementation of medical cannabis in Missouri, the program is finally functional and providing access to patients across the state,” the report states.

ASA Executive Director Debbie Churgai says that one of the main surprise findings of this report was the lack of progress being made to strengthen and develop the medical cannabis sector.

“This was the first report that we saw the fewest improvements in the states,” Churgai says. “So much so that I felt a little shocked at first.”

The five states with the highest-graded medical cannabis access programs were Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Of the five, Maryland had the highest score, receiving a 75.7 percent on the group’s scale.

ASA issued 13 failing grades to state medical cannabis programs: Texas, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The lowest-scoring states were Idaho and Nebraska, which both received a 0 for a lack of medical cannabis programs.

ASA issued letter grades to all state medical cannabis programs in the report, based on a 0 to 100 scale. The programs were evaluated on the metrics of: patient rights and civil protection, accessibility, program functionality, affordability, health