WASHINGTON — The public has until September 10 to submit nominations for the 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards, a national recognition program highlighting the people, organizations, programs, products, and innovations advancing cannabis safety and medical access.
Presented as part of Cannabis Safety Month, the awards recognize practical solutions to issues that often dominate public debates about cannabis—from product safety, dosing, storage, youth education, impaired driving, consumer protection, and professional education to medical access, research, journalism, and public policy.
Anyone may submit a nomination; self-nominations are welcome, and there is no participation fee.
Nominations for the 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards close September 10.
The awards reflect the central purpose of Cannabis Safety Month: recognizing community concerns, spotlighting solutions, and building what comes next.
Cannabis safety is built by people who investigate hard questions, create better tools, educate communities, protect consumers, conduct rigorous research, and turn public concerns into workable policy. The 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards will recognize the leaders and innovations helping cannabis move forward with greater trust, transparency, accountability, and responsibility.
Recognition matters
Cannabis safety debates are too often defined by fear, slogans, political rhetoric, or arguments over whether a concern should be acknowledged at all. The Cannabis Safety Awards shift the focus to the people and solutions doing practical work.
That includes better public education, safer storage, clearer labeling, stronger consumer protection, more precise dosing tools, professional training, responsible product design, independent research, investigative reporting, inclusive access programs, and public officials willing to develop evidence-informed policy.
“For too long, cannabis safety concerns have been used as arguments against access instead of challenges we should be working together to solve,” said Steph Sherer, founder and president of Americans for Safe Access.“The Cannabis Safety Awards are about changing that conversation. We want to recognize the people asking difficult questions and the researchers, advocates, businesses, journalists, public officials, educators, and innovators who are actually doing something about them. Their work is helping demonstrate that safety and access are not competing goals. Building better safety systems is essential to protecting the future of medical cannabis.”
The future of medical cannabis will depend on more than laws permitting access. It will require trusted information, sound research, knowledgeable professionals, responsible products and businesses, effective public policies, and systems capable of protecting patients and the public. The individuals and initiatives recognized through these awards are helping build that infrastructure.
18 Cannabis Safety Awards categories
The 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards span 18 categories recognizing individuals, programs and initiatives, and products and innovations that are helping turn cannabis safety concerns into practical solutions.
Individuals
Honoring the people whose leadership, advocacy, reporting, research, and public service are advancing cannabis safety and medical access.
The Watchdog Award — Excellence in Investigative Journalism
Recognizes original journalism that investigates cannabis safety issues with depth, accuracy, fairness, and public consequence.
The Patient Voice Award — Patient Advocacy Leadership
Recognizes individual leadership advancing cannabis safety and medical access through patient-centered advocacy, education, coalition building, or policy work.
The Public Courage Award — Elected Official Leadership
Recognizes an elected official who advanced a practical, evidence-informed cannabis safety or medical-access solution during 2026.
The 2026 Discovery Award — Research Advancing Cannabis Safety
Recognizes an individual researcher or research team whose work expands the evidence needed to improve patient care, public education, consumer protection, professional practice, or public policy.
Programs and Initiatives
Recognizing programs, campaigns, organizations, and collaborative efforts that are turning cannabis safety concerns into practical solutions.
The 2026 Community Catalyst Award — Collaborative Cannabis Safety Leadership
Recognizes an organization or company bringing patients, families, professionals, businesses, public officials, or other stakeholders together to address a cannabis safety need.
The 2026 Safety Signal Award — Public Education Impact
Recognizes an education campaign that makes a complex cannabis safety issue understandable, useful, and actionable.
The 2026 Roadwise Award — Impaired-Driving Education & Prevention
Recognizes a campaign, training program, tool, or public-service initiative advancing education and prevention around cannabis impairment and driving safety.
The 2026 Next Generation Award — Youth & Family Cannabis Education
Recognizes age-appropriate education helping young people, parents, caregivers, schools, and pediatric communities address cannabis honestly and responsibly.
The 2026 Market Watch Award — Consumer Protection & Retail Accountability
Recognizes an independent program evaluating cannabis retail practices, labeling, accessibility, compliance, age verification, patient experience, or consumer safety.
The 2026 Safe Access Award — Equitable Access & Inclusive Cannabis Safety
Recognizes efforts that remove barriers to credible safety information, healthcare resources, practical support, or medical cannabis access.
The 2026 Professional Standard Award — Cannabis Safety Professional Education & Training Recognizes professional development, continuing education, certification, or workforce training that strengthens cannabis safety knowledge and practice.
Products and innovations
Celebrating products, technologies, tools, and design innovations that make cannabis use safer, clearer, more consistent, and more accountable.
The 2026 Lock It Down Award — Safe Storage Innovation
Recognizes products and systems that help prevent unauthorized access, accidental ingestion, loss, or diversion.
The 2026 Freshness by Design Award — Product Preservation Innovation
Recognizes products and technologies that protect cannabis quality and integrity from environmental exposure, contamination, damage, or tampering.
The 2026 Safe & Balanced Award — THC Safety, Education & Response
Recognizes products, services, tools, or educational resources that help adults understand, prevent, and safely respond to uncomfortable THC overconsumption.
The 2026 Green Standard Award — Sustainability Leadership & Innovation
Recognizes products, programs, technologies, facilities, or business practices that reduce the environmental impact of cannabis without compromising safety or access.
The 2026 Flower Forward Award — Whole-Flower Vaporization Innovation
Recognizes whole-flower vaporization technologies that advance temperature control, materials safety, cleanability, dose awareness, usability, and consumer guidance.
The 2026 Know Your Dose Award — Precision Dosing & Measurement
Recognizes devices, tools, packaging, or systems that help patients and adult consumers measure, portion, track, or understand cannabis dosing more consistently.
The 2026 Full Disclosure Award — Excellence in Testing, Labeling & Product Transparency Recognizes laboratories, products, technologies, and transparency programs that make cannabis test results, ingredients, potency, warnings, batch information, recalls, and instructions easier to understand and verify.
Who can be nominated?
Eligibility varies by category. Nominees may include patients and caregivers, advocates, journalists, researchers, healthcare and public-health professionals, elected officials, nonprofit and community organizations, public agencies, educational institutions, campaigns and public-service programs, companies, products, technologies, tools, and services.
Self-nominations are welcome. There is no nomination fee, and nominators must provide a working email address.
Who can nominate?
Anyone may submit a nomination, including patients, consumers, healthcare professionals, advocates, educators, researchers, public officials, organizations, businesses, and members of the public.
The goal is to identify work that deserves wider recognition and, where possible, replication. A strong nomination should explain the problem being addressed, the solution the nominee has developed or advanced, and the impact that work is having on cannabis safety or medical access.
How it works
September 10 — Nominations Close
The public may nominate eligible individuals, organizations, programs, products, and innovations through September 10.
September 14 — Finalists Announced
Approved finalists will be announced and featured during Cannabis Safety Month.
Public Voting & Independent Review
The public will help select the 2026 winners, with an independent review panel applying published award criteria.
September 30 — Winners Announced
The 2026 Cannabis Safety Award winners will be announced during the Cannabis Safety Month Closing Roundtable.
Download Cannabis Safety Awards Program
Sponsors sought
Americans for Safe Access is also seeking sponsors for the 2026 Cannabis Safety Awards to expand the recognition program’s reach and elevate the people, programs, products, and innovations advancing cannabis safety and medical access.
Sponsorship offers organizations an opportunity to support a national effort focused on practical solutions, credible information, responsible innovation, and the long-term future of safe medical cannabis access.
About Cannabis Safety Month
Cannabis Safety Month is a national public education campaign focused on recognizing community concerns, spotlighting practical solutions, and building what comes next for cannabis safety and medical access.
The campaign brings together patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, businesses, public officials, advocates, families, and other stakeholders to address cannabis safety issues through credible information, inclusion, collaboration, and problem-solving.
Cannabis Safety Month challenges the idea that acknowledging cannabis safety concerns undermines access. Instead, the campaign demonstrates that addressing legitimate concerns with evidence, education, responsible practices, and practical solutions can strengthen public confidence and help protect the future of medical cannabis.
About Americans for Safe Access
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. Since 2002, ASA has worked with patients, medical professionals, researchers, policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders to improve medical cannabis policy, patient protections, product safety, professional education, and healthcare integration.
