Don Duncan

Don Duncan is a founder and member of the Board of Directors of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the nation’s leading medical cannabis patient advocacy organization. He serves on the peer-review and risk managements committees for ASA’s Patient Focused Certification (PFC) program, which seeks to calibrate the national cannabis industry for excellence. His work at ASA helped to secure important rights for medical cannabis patients and to bring the voice of patients into the national conversation about medical cannabis.

Don was an early champion of local regulations and licensing for cannabis business, and later worked with a coalition of advocates to promote and adopt the first state medical cannabis licensing bill in 2015. His legislative work included building coalitions with labor, law enforcement, local government, and cannabis stakeholders to break a deadlock on state legislation that persisted for more than a decade. He continues to work with lawmakers and leadership at state licensing agencies on legislation and administrative regulation for the industry. Don is an expert at local and state cannabis licensing and compliance, having secured more than thirty licenses for cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, retail, and Microbusinesses in California.

Don is the Director of Government Affairs and Chief Operating Officer for a vertically integrated multi-jurisdictional family of cannabis businesses. He is a twenty-year veteran of the cannabis industry, with extensive experience in business operations, community organizing, lobbying, and regulation at the local and state level. He founded and co-founded cannabis and medical cannabis retail stores in jurisdictions including Sacramento, Berkeley, Oakland, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Palm Springs, and others. He has helped dozens of cannabis businesses as a cannabis consult specializing in operations, licensing, and compliance.