This article was submitted by Alyssa Smailes, Director of the Utah Cannabis Association. Their mission is to advance Utah’s cannabis industry by promoting a safe medicinal marketplace in a responsible, patient-focused environment. If you would like to learn more, please visit the Utah Cannabis Association website for more information.
Utah’s cannabis industry is ever evolving. From the moment Prop 2 passed in 2018, we have recognized the need for a concerted effort of license holders, government officials, ancillary industries, and patients to influence cannabis regulation. It is difficult to affect change if we do not come together to advance the industry. Hellen Keller said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
The Utah Cannabis Association (UCA) unifies efforts to advance the mission of the medical cannabis industry. We work to provide a safe medicinal marketplace, always with the patient in mind. To accomplish this mission, the UCA proactively addresses legislative issues related to systemic changes in the cannabis industry and builds business relationships.
The association allows for open-minded dialogue where we can discern the needs of the industry and parlay those needs to the legislators and regulators, where we work together to help create laws that will benefit business owners and, most importantly, patients.
The medicinal cannabis industry is the most highly regulated industry in Utah due to cannabis being a Schedule 1 Substance under the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. This piece of legislation was created in 1970 to group all drugs into one piece of legislation, making it easier for the federal government to control drug distribution pathways.
In the process, members of the press and political parties created exaggerated stories that painted this plant and those who use it in a negative light. Currently, federal law states that cannabis has more potential for abuse than opioids and narcotics. Years of study and application have proved this false, yet the law remains unchanged.
Since the inception of this legislation, attempts have been repeatedly rejected to deschedule or decriminalize cannabis at a federal level. We have learned that to affect change, we must band together to help Utah understand cannabis’ medicinal benefits while reshaping negative perceptions.
Part of UCA’s mission is to help destigmatize medicinal cannabis in a way that will enable it to become accessible to patients who need it. We have a lot of ground to cover and years of bias to reshape, but we are committed to helping reach more Utahns who would benefit from this plant.
As part of our commitment to destigmatizing, we are hosting free quarterly educational events open to the public to encourage the community to come, share their knowledge and experiences surrounding cannabis and ask clarifying questions.
These events take place at Publik Coffee House at 975 S West Temple St. We will have QMPs that can help discern if patients qualify for medical cards, pharmacists with years of experience using the medicine to treat qualifying conditions, and industry leaders who can assist those interested in understanding the cannabis market.
Utilizing a communal, public forum to answer questions and a unified approach, we are hopeful we will mold the patient experience that will increase state-wide support. We hope to be an industry other states can model, and we are working to bring the industry together under one umbrella to make this a reality.
Utah’s voters stand for this program and recognize the benefits, and we owe it to them to create protected avenues so patients can access their medicine safely and enhance their quality of life. Together we can do so much.
