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http://www.ladybud.co m/2013/06/13/why-mo re-nurses-and-student-nurses-need-to -jo in-the-american-cannabis-nursesasso ciatio n-acna/

Why More Nurses and Student Nurses Need to Join the

American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA)
Leslie Reyes

T he American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) was f ounded in 2010 by Mary Lynn Mathre (RN,
MSN, CARN), and Ed Glick (BS, AD, Nursing) along with a small group of other nurses and
supporters who have cared f or patients who use cannabis to treat their illnesses.
Nurses who advocate f or medical cannabis, or are patients themselves, sometimes f ind themselves
subjected to inappropriate investigations and disciplinary actions. ACNA is a voice of unity, where nurses can
assist each other with def ending our right to discuss this treatment with our patients, or utilize medical
cannabis programs ourselves without f ear of retribution.
T he f irst time I saw Mary Lynn Mathre, President of the
ACNA, she was speaking at the 2008 Patients Out of
Time conf erence in Pacif ic Grove, CA.
I f ound myself at this conf erence just a little over a year
af ter Id witnessed the raid on the dispensary in Los
Angeles I had been working at. Seeing DEA put semiautomatic weapons to cancer patients heads and
watching my co-workers get handcuf f ed had me
wondering if I really wanted to continue working in the
cannabis industry, f lirting with the Feds like that, and
wondering if it would ruin my chances of getting a
mainstream job in the f uture.

The Staff o f the Farmac y in We s t Ho llywo o d fro m

De c e mb e r 2006, ab o ut a mo nth b e fo re we g o t raid e d b y
the DEA.

Id originally taken the position as a second part-time job so I could save up f or nursing school. However, I had
been so inspired by the patients who I watched recover or have their lives improved by this miraculous plant, I
had put the nursing school idea on hold f or a bit so I could work there f ull-time. Seeing what cannabis did f or
these patients really changed the way I looked at medicine, and it was f rustrating there was so much stigma
around it.
But, af ter the raid, I took a f ew months of f to do some soul searching. Was it really worth the risk? I thought I
could go back to being a medical secretary, but I missed the patients at the dispensary so much, I missed
watching them heal, and I missed my coworkers.
Quite honestly, I f elt like a coward f or running away while everyone else stayed and cleaned the place up in
order to rebuild it again.
I realized, this wasnt about just getting a mainstream job someday. T he f ight to make sure patients could
receive cannabis without worrying about the DEA putting a gun to their heads was more important than that.
T he dispensary had re-opened only a f ew days af ter the raid, but it took me a f ew months to f inally get my
courage to back. Once I did go back to the dispensary, I attended as many medical and political events as I
could.

One of those events was the 2008 Patients Out of Time conf erence in Pacif ic Grove.
It wasnt just Mary Lynn Mathre who inspired me at that conf erence, but all the other doctors,nurses, health
care workers, patients, loved ones of patients, and activists who were speaking up and f ighting really hard to
end the stigma (while f acing all kinds of legal threats) who inspired me as well. I thought to myself , I have to be
like them. T here arent enough of them.
So, in 2009, I lef t Calif ornia, and moved back to the East Coast (where Im originally f rom), and immediately
started enrolling in pre-requisites f or nursing school. I saw Mary Lynn again, this time at the 2010 Patients Out
of Time conf erence in Rhode Island, where she and others who had cared f or cannabis patients f ounded the
American Cannabis Nurses Association.
I of f icially joined the ACNA as a student member af ter I was accepted into nursing school.
In f our semesters of nursing school, there were no f ormal discussions on cannabis in the classroom and a lot
of the old misconceptions about cannabis are still being taught. T here have been, however, inf ormal
discussions in the clinical setting, and attitudes towards cannabis are def initely changing f or the better.
One of the goals of the ACNA is to set up advanced certif ication and credentialing f or nurses in
endocannabinoid therapeutics. Partnering with Patients Out of Time, the ACNA will represent the only nursing
educational and advocacy organization representing endocannabinoid therapeutics in the United States.

Partnering with Patients Out of Time, the ACNA will represent the only
nursing educational and advocacy organization representing
endocannabinoid therapeutics in the United States.
We need more nurses and nursing students to join the ACNA. Cannabis patients have the right to be treated
and cared f or by nurses who have been educated in the science behind cannabis.
Nurses need to be able to provide this care without the f ear of losing their licenses, and patients have a right
to access this medicine, saf ely, with the guidance of their nurse.
T he ACNA is also working to set up a members-only discussion group online f or nurses to conf identially and
securely communicate and network.
Most importantly, ACNA nurses are creating a new nursing subspecialty called cannabis nursing, which
integrates marginalized patients into nursing practice, and joins nurses together.
If youre interested in joining or learning more about the American Cannabis Nurses Association, go to
www.cannabisnurse.org