Your Voice Dismantles Stigma - Why Speaking Up About Cannabis Matters
Everyone has a story about how they learned about medical cannabis and came to see it differently. My story started when I was over 30 years into a nursing career. After decades of trusting the system I'd trained in, I had to sit with the uncomfortable realization that stigma, not science, was the reason so many patients never heard about a treatment option that could genuinely help them. That discomfort is what turned me into an advocate, and it's why I keep coming back to one word: stigma.
If you've ever hesitated to bring up cannabis with your doctor, your family, or even friends then you already know what stigma feels like. It's one of the most prohibitive reasons we don't talk about medical cannabis openly, and it does real damage. It stops legislation from moving forward. It keeps healthcare professionals under-educated. And most importantly, it keeps critical information out of the hands of patients who deserve to make informed decisions about their own health.
What Is Stigma, Really?
Merriam-Webster defines stigma simply as the negative, unfair beliefs a society or group of people holds about something. Sociologist Erving Goffman went a layer deeper in his 1963 work Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, describing it as something that becomes part of a person's identity. It causes people to be socially devalued to the point that what they are doing or saying is treated as morally offensive.
That's a heavy weight to carry for something as simple as a conversation about a plant. And it's a weight that shows up in three distinct places:
our laws
our healthcare system
our own personal beliefs.
Stigma in Laws and Society
Cannabis stigma is written directly into policy. Today, 23 states and three U.S. territories have adult-use laws for cannabis, others allow medical programs only. In some places cannabis possession is still criminalized outright. People are still arrested and incarcerated for it. On top of that, the rise of hemp-derived products has muddied the waters even further for the average consumer trying to understand what's legal where.
For those who know about the benefits of medical cannabis, we must continue to advocate for the laws that support patients. Nurses like myself, are uniquely positioned to do this. When people who know about cannabis show up informed, knowing their representatives, understanding their position on cannabis, educated on how our state's legislative process works, and attending committee meetings, we don't just advocate, we educate. And in rooms full of policymakers who often know far less about the science of this plant medicine, this knowledge commands respect.
Stigma in Healthcare and Policy
For decades, medical and nursing schools avoided cannabis education almost entirely. This is partly a holdover from the "Reefer Madness" era that left generations of clinicians graduating medical school and nursing school without the training to have an informed conversation about medical cannabis. It was taught that it was a Schedule I drug and illegal. Fear and silence around the topic have led to real harm. Patients going without guidance on something that could meaningfully improve their quality of life or support healing their disease process is one of the real outcomes of this lack of education.
There is a shift beginning in the nursing profession. In September 2023, the American Nurses Association officially declared cannabis nursing a specialty. This professional organization that represents over 5 million nurses has begun to create urgency around research and evidence-based standards of care for medical cannabis. This followed the National Council of State Boards of Nursing's 2018 mandate calling for nurses to understand state cannabis laws, the endocannabinoid system, cannabis pharmacology and safety, and how to provide non-judgmental, collaborative care. The nursing profession itself has given the permission to speak about cannabis. Stigma is often the only thing still standing in the way.
Stigma and Personal Beliefs
This is the level most of us don't talk about, because it lives inside us. Stigma isn't only external. It is also a part of our own personal history, our patients' history, our healthcare colleagues' history, and our legislators' history too. None of us arrives at this conversation neutral. Everyone has a history that brings beliefs and “truth” to the conversation. We are all subjective in our personal beliefs about cannabis.
That's exactly why awareness has to be step one. You can't dismantle a bias you haven't acknowledged, in yourself or in the room you're standing in.
Working to Change Stigma
There's a simple, repeatable framework for chipping away at stigma wherever you find it:
Awareness - Anticipate that stigma will be present, and name it when it shows up.
Education - This is science. Speak the truth with confidence.
Normalize - Talk about it more often, and more openly, until it stops being taboo.
The Domino Effect
Change doesn't require a movement of thousands to start. In order for the process of change to begin it requires conversation - one conversation at a time. Every legislator you reach is a law that has the potential to shift. Every colleague you educate becomes a voice multiplied. Every patient, family, friend conversation is a domino that can fall toward better care.
So speak for the laws that need to change, for the colleague who hasn't been informed yet, for the loved one who's too afraid to ask the question out loud.
The Call to Action
Growth is determined by the amount of discomfort you're able to comfortably tolerate. Staying silent is a choice, and it's one that quietly perpetuates the very stigma we're trying to dismantle.
You are not just one person, one caregiver, or one patient with a story. You are part of a movement. That movement grows every time someone decides to speak instead of staying quiet.
I promise I will keep speaking, too. Together, we can be the change we wish to see.
References
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Simon & Schuster.
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Stigma. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved May 25, 2026, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stigma
National Conference of State Legislatures. State medical cannabis laws. https://www.ncsl.org/health/state-medical-cannabis-laws
American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights. (2021). Therapeutic use of marijuana and related cannabinoids [Position statement]. https://www.nursingworld.org/~49c0a0/globalassets/practiceandpolicy/nursing-excellence/ana-position-statements/therapeutic-use-of-marijuana-and-related-cannabinoids-position-statement-final-2021.pdf
National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2018). The NCSBN national nursing guidelines for medical marijuana.Journal of Nursing Regulation. https://www.ncsbn.org/public-files/The_NCSBN_National_Nursing_Guidelines_for_Medical_Marijuana_JNR_July_2018.pdf