Local Advocacy

A very important aspect of the licensing, registration, and approval process involving marijuana and cannabis based businesses is the coordination, collaboration, and working in conjunction with local advocacy groups, including community, nonprofits, agency, and government based organizations. Many states currently have such local advocacy organizations, including for instance Rhode Island, which includes the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition (RIPAC) whose mission is primarily based “on the principle that patients whose medical practitioners recommend medical marijuana should have safe access to this medicine [and] organized patient testimony that led to the 2006 passage of the Medical Marijuana Act, and the 2007 amendment making the Act permanent.”

From a business perspective, aligning one’s efforts with a local advocacy organization can have long-term benefits, including the ability to foster a long-term network, the development of an array of resources, and the ability to form relationships that can be very beneficial to one’s business especially in terms of the licensing, registration and approval process.

Obtaining an appropriate advocacy network takes a significant amount of time, effort, and in many circumstances expense, and can greatly impact the ability of a marijuana or cannabis based venture from being successful or even in a worst case scenario, not having adequate community support to where the local township or administrative board refuses to approve such business based venture applications. As such, the likelihood that a marijuana or cannabis related application is accepted or denied may in fact be the product of how well such prospective applicant has appropriately aligned itself with such local advocacy groups.

The mission statement for the RIPAC incorporates this notion of collaboration, where it states it is a “a nonprofit organization comprised of local medical marijuana patients, caregivers, doctors, advocacy groups, and others who are interested in medical marijuana [and] RIPAC advances discourse, research, and policy related to medical marijuana in four main areas: patient advocacy, professional education, research, and policy development.” Using RIPAC as a template, local advocacy can greatly assist in the licensing, registration, and approval process in the following ways:

• Advocacy organizations maintain a network of community leaders, caregivers, physicians, patients, lawyers, and other individuals that can provide a wealth of information
• When it comes to the subject of marijuana and cannabis based ventures, such requires a working knowledge of laws, science, regulations, and other relevant information that can be obtained through advocacy networks
• Medical research and science regarding marijuana and cannabis are consistently changing and it requires such business ventures to be acutely aware of such developments
• From a legislative perspective, states are increasingly adopting and modifying laws, regulations, and rules pertaining to marijuana and cannabis based ventures and thus, applicants and owners need to be constantly aware of such changes in the law

The Nassiri Law Group, Cannabis Law Group, in Orange County, Los Angeles, and Riverside California, are available to assist with the licensing, registration, and approval process to assist in your marijuana and cannabis based business. For a free case consultation call 949-375-4734 today.