National Press Club Member Selected ASA Journalist of the Year
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest and most respected medical marijuana advocacy group in the world, announced that National Press Club member David Hodes, a business and lifestyle writer and editor, has been selected as 2018 Journalist of the Year.
The ASA Journalist of the Year award is given to journalists or media personalities who have raised the national dialogue regarding medical cannabis. Hodes is a principal at DH Productions, a media company based in D.C.
"I am honored by this recognition from one of the largest and most effective medical marijuana advocacy organizations in the world," Hodes said. "I have always strived to give the ASA their rightful coverage because I believe that advocacy - and advocates willing to take significant personal and professional risks - are at the heart of the cannabis legalization movement, and will continue to play a significant role in ending prohibition, and the war on drugs, and make this amazing and complex plant legally accessible to the millions of people around the world who can truly live a better life because of it."
Hodes is a contract writer for business and lifestyle publications, including the Washington Business Journal and Northern Virginia magazine. He also reports on the cannabis industry for Marijuana Venture, Ganjapreneur, Leafly, and Freedom Leaf.
He is the former managing editor of Cannabis Business Executive, a business publication for C-suite cannabis executives, and the first-ever member of the press club to be granted a Congressional press pass to report about the cannabis industry on the Hill.
Hodes has covered many events sponsored by the ASA, interviewing advocates, activists, and researchers, and has gone with members of the ASA to report on their work on the Hill advocating for medical marijuana patients with various members of Congress.
Two of their staunchest supporters in Congress are Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). An amendment to the annual spending bill co-sponsored by Blumenauer and Rohrabacher prohibits the federal government from using funds to interfere with medical marijuana operations across the country – a critical piece of legislation that the ASA continues to champion.
That amendment has drawn scrutiny in Congress each time it comes up in spending bill discussions. But a recent statement by President Trump supporting efforts to protect states that have legalized marijuana may have paved the way for a broader version of the amendment, with the hopes that any resulting bill will signal permanent legal protections for medical marijuana businesses.
In a statement issued late April, Steph Sherer, the executive director of the ASA, said that if the president intends to support a federalism-based solution, the ASA is "ready and willing to continue our efforts of ensuring that patients can access the medicine they need through robust state programs."
About the ASA: Founded in 2002 by Steph Sherer, who is one of the most influential people in the cannabis industry today, and with over 100,000 active members in all 50 states, ASA is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. https://www.safeaccessnow.org/press
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