Americans for Safe Access, the largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists, and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for medical use and research, and the signatories of this petition are calling on the White House and Congress to pass medical cannabis laws at the federal level and recommending that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) work with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to remove cannabis from their list of banned substances.

According to emergency physician and member of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Cannabis, Dr. Larry Bedard, “Cannabis should never have been banned, as there is no scientific evidence to support the claims that cannabis possesses any performance enhancing qualities.”

Medical cannabis is legal at the federal level in nearly 50 countries. Although medical cannabis is legal in 37 states, the District of Columbia, and four territories in the U.S, it is still illegal at the federal level, causing barriers to access and injustices to human rights. Sha’Carri Richardson used cannabis in Oregon where it is legal for both medical and adult-use, yet was still penalized by WADA due to outdated policies.  

Even the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN) body that specializes in international public health, now considers cannabis to be a medicine and recommended that the UN remove cannabis from Schedule IV, the most restrictive classification intended for drugs that are dangerous and lack therapeutic importance. In December of 2020, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) adopted the WHO’s recommendations by removing cannabis from Schedule IV.

The White House, Congress, USADA, and WADA should follow the lead of the United Nations, and nearly 50 other countries, and update their policies regarding medical cannabis immediately to ensure that world class athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson, and everyday citizens, are not unnecessarily penalized!