Executive Director's Weekly Report

Hello!

CFCR is celebrating its 1 year anniversary this month and we'll be rolling out a series of upgrades to set the stage for the year ahead! These include a new website, member portals, streamlined communication tools, and a robust grassroots component. Our CFCR team is working hard to ensure that your membership experience is the best it can be! CFCR is also on a growth trajectory. Our committees are all fully formed and we'll be publishing the updated charters with the launch of the new site. And, we are focused on expanding both our committee memberships as well as our Board into 2023.

As our Founder Sheri Orlowitz stated at our launch one year ago, “CFCR was designed to provide tools, business guidance and scientific resources to support the FDA’s process to regulate cannabis compounds; to attract and educate established industry and encourage its support and investment in the regulatory process and to ensure regulations are informed by and grounded in the policies behind legalization such as access to cannabis without undue burden and restorative justice. These objectives will be achieved by a series of programs CFCR will facilitate, designed to inform and support FDA safety requirements, developing an agreed path for cannabis, building off accurate science, extensive research studies and best practices from other countries and educating and attracting hesitant stakeholders and encouraging them to invest in regulation.”?

Sheri and I will both be speaking at the?PBC Conference in DC (September 7-8)?and we look forward to seeing you there and discussing your thoughts on the future of this marketplace and how CFCR is now positioned to help guide all stakeholders through the complexities ahead.?

Last week, CFCR joined patient advocacy groups, including our partner organization at the Epilepsy Foundation, in urging Senator Schumer (D-NY) to take up and pass H.R. 8454, the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Act.?CLICK HERE?to read the letter. The legislation remains stalled and we urge each of you to?contact Sen. Schumer's office to urge passage.?

As a final thought to this auspicious week and with full focus on the future of CFCR, allow me to quote from?Teresa Simon of Physicians Research Center. We were recently on a call together and she said, "Efficacy gets you to the market; safety keeps you in the market." Wise words.?

Happy Labor Day!

All my best,?

Sarah

P.S. As noted in our DEI and Access to Capital Committee report this week ...?under federal financial aid policies put in place at the height of the War on Drugs and promoted by then Senator?Biden, access to Pell Grants was denied for convicted drug offenders, who were required to disclose their convictions by checking a box on financial aid applications.AP has the story and it's worth reflecting upon at this time.?