Introducing Our New Partner: The Community Alliance
For more than a decade, The Cannabis Alliance has worked to give Washington’s regulated cannabis industry a strong, credible, and unified voice.
We advocate. We lobby. We engage with regulators. We bring businesses together to solve problems, develop policy, and push for a cannabis system that is more equitable, sustainable, accountable, and workable for the people operating within it.
That work is not changing.
In fact, we believe it is more important than ever.
But years of doing this work have also made something else increasingly clear: not every challenge facing cannabis can be solved through industry advocacy.
That is why The Cannabis Alliance helped create a new charitable partner: The Community Alliance.
Why create another organization?
The Cannabis Alliance is a 501(c)(6) trade association. Our job is to represent the regulated cannabis industry and advocate for the businesses and people working within it.
That role matters.
Washington’s cannabis industry continues to face an extraordinarily complicated regulatory environment, economic pressure, an evolving federal landscape, and major policy questions about the future of the market. The industry needs organized representation in Olympia and sustained engagement with the agencies and policymakers whose decisions affect our businesses every day.
At the same time, many of the challenges we encounter extend well beyond the businesses we represent.
Patients struggle to navigate Washington’s medical cannabis system.
Healthcare professionals need reliable information and resources.
Families and consumers are trying to understand cannabis laws, products, health considerations, and responsible use.
Local governments and community organizations are making decisions about cannabis without always having access to clear, trusted information.
And years after legalization, stigma and misinformation continue to shape public conversations about cannabis.
Those are not simply industry problems.
They are community problems.
And they require community-based solutions.
Two organizations. Two distinct roles.
The Community Alliance is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization focused on education, research, patient resources, community engagement, and public programs.
It is not a replacement for The Cannabis Alliance.
The two organizations have different purposes and different constituencies, and that distinction is intentional.
The Cannabis Alliance gives the regulated industry a voice. The Community Alliance gives the broader community resources, education, and opportunities to engage.
The Cannabis Alliance will continue advocating for our members and Washington’s regulated cannabis businesses through legislative advocacy, lobbying, regulatory engagement, industry education, coalition building, and policy development.
The Community Alliance will build public-facing programs focused on cannabis literacy, medical cannabis education and patient navigation, youth and family education, healthy aging, local government and community education, and civic participation.
There will be places where our work intersects. But the organizations approach that work from different directions and for different purposes.
That is a strength.
Why this makes The Cannabis Alliance stronger
Creating The Community Alliance allows each organization to stay focused on what it is built to do.
For The Cannabis Alliance, that means continuing to be unapologetically focused on representing Washington’s regulated cannabis industry.
There are significant fights ahead.
Federal cannabis policy is changing. Washington’s regulatory framework continues to evolve. Businesses are operating under enormous economic pressure. Questions involving taxation, market structure, medical cannabis, testing, traceability, local regulation, ownership, and the long-term sustainability of the regulated market are far from resolved.
Those issues require an organization whose job is to represent the industry.
That organization is The Cannabis Alliance.
At the same time, building a healthier cannabis ecosystem requires more than changing laws and regulations. It requires public education, stronger community relationships, better patient resources, credible research, and opportunities for people outside the regulated industry to participate in the conversation.
The Community Alliance gives that work a home of its own.
Rather than asking one organization to be everything to everyone, we are building two organizations capable of doing different kinds of work well.
What comes next
Over the coming months, you will begin seeing more from The Community Alliance and the programs it is building.
Its flagship initiative, the Medical Cannabis Summit, brings together patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, regulators, policymakers, advocates, and community members to strengthen Washington’s medical cannabis system.
Additional initiatives will focus on cannabis literacy, patient and family education, community connections, responsible storage, healthy aging, and civic participation.
At the same time, The Cannabis Alliance will continue doing what our members depend on us to do: showing up in Olympia, engaging regulators, organizing the industry, building coalitions, developing policy, and making sure Washington’s cannabis businesses have a voice when decisions are being made.
Stay Engaged
The creation of The Community Alliance does not mean The Cannabis Alliance is stepping back.
It means the work is getting bigger.
Washington built a regulated cannabis industry. Now we have an opportunity to strengthen both the industry itself and the public infrastructure around it.
We believe doing both will create a stronger cannabis system for everyone.
If you are part of Washington’s regulated cannabis industry, we need you engaged in what comes next.
Learn about The Cannabis Alliance membership →
Join an upcoming The Cannabis Alliance meeting or event →
And as we expand this work beyond the industry, we invite you to get to know the organization we built to help make that possible.