About us

The Alliance for Sensible Markets is a non-profit coalition of business and advocacy leaders committed to a thriving, just, sustainable, and broadly beneficial legal cannabis industry.

Our goals

Adult use:

  • Open the option of state-regulated commerce between legal markets NOW, without waiting for the end of federal prohibition, for states that choose to participate. Legal cannabis is failing, and failing spectacularly to displace the illicit market largely because we have the economics wrong. Rationalizing a supply chain between willing legal markets would begin to solve that. And waiting around for the US Congress to legalize cannabis has never been a winning strategy.
  • Open actual commerce between willing state markets as quickly as possible.
  • Advocate for and participate in crafting a regulatory framework or frameworks between legal markets that will, among other things, support ease of access and broad participation by small farms and businesses and equity licensees in new, intermarket supply chains. There is room for a broad array of businesses in the legal market, but providing real opportunity for small businesses and equity licensees to succeed is the only way for legal cannabis to keep its soul and be accountable to its history.
  • Advocate for regulatory frameworks that put consumers first, providing access to the best, broadest, and most cost-effective selection of safe, legal cannabis products. Providing a full range of legal, world-class products at competitive pricing will help move millions of actual human beings out of unregulated, untested, and often deeply criminal and environmentally destructive illicit markets. Effectively and efficiently moving people into regulated markets is the first test of whether “legalization” is working.
  • Build a network of member businesses across the supply chain to come together to accomplish these goals. And to help them prepare – through information, access, and relationships – to take first and best advantage of the opportunities presented by commerce across legal markets.

Medical cannabis:

  • Access to medicine: We believe that every legal patient in every medical state should have access to the broadest selection of the safest, most appropriate, and most cost-effective cannabis medicines available legally anywhere in the country.
  • We will fight to secure that access for patients at the lowest possible cost, which means directly from suppliers whenever possible and appropriate.

Alliance milestone accomplishments

Since late 2018, the Alliance for Sensible Markets, in our quest to create a profitable, broadly beneficial, and historically accountable industry has been laser-focused on opening state-regulated commerce between consenting adult use and/or medical markets. In that time, we have drafted and led efforts to pass interstate commerce laws in Oregon, California, and Washington. Hover over a date to see what we’ve accomplished!

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Board of directors

Adam J. Smith
Founder and President,
Alliance for Sensible Markets

Dr. Rachel Knox
President, Cannabis Health Equity Movement

William Kelly
AgriCascadia

Shanita Penny
CEO, Budding Solutions
Past President, Minority Cannabis Business Association

Jesse Peters
CEO, Mantis Growth Investments

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