Join the Sonoma County Cannabis Alliance for our monthly networking mixer!
Our speaker this month will be local medical cannabis activist Sarah Shrader!
Sarah Shrader witnessed her 1st federal cannabis raid in San Francisco in 2002, and was deeply impacted by the effects on the community. It was no coincidence that she started volunteering with Americans for Safe Access, as they organized around the federal trial that followed.
In 2004, Sarah managed Compassionate Health Options, assisting to establish their first four medical cannabis doctors clinics. Her prior medical experience included working as a Chiropractic Assistant, and as an in-home caregiver for mentally and physically disabled patients. She has taught at Oaksterdam University since 2008, and is dedicated to education, research, and advocacy related to medical cannabis.
During her time working as Northern California Liaison for Americans for Safe Access, she helped organize the response to federal raids, hosted dispensary trainings, attended court support for cannabis cases, and oversaw the peer counseling program. After leaving ASA, she worked as a legal assistant for an “aggressive cannabis defense attorney” E.D. Lerman, where she had the opportunity to work on state and federal cases.
After her resignation from ASA, she was recognized as the “Patient Advocate of the Year” at ASA’s Unity Conference & Congressional Lobby Day in 2013. Her commitment to public service includes an appointment by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2010 to the Medical Cannabis Task Force to represent National Policy. This was followed by an appointment in 2015 to the San Francisco State Cannabis Legalization Task Force, to the seat representing Public Policy. And Sarah sat on the Sonoma County Cannabis Advisory Group until it sunset in 2019. She was also an original member of SCGA.
Her current professional work is dedicated to assisting businesses get through regulatory hurdles. Sarah is continues her commitment to medical cannabis as the chair of Sonoma Chapter of ASA, and advocating for the rights of patients and compassion programs more broadly. She’s a Sonoma County local and a proud mother of two.
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