From Caregiver to Changemaker: The Lawyer Behind Ryan’s Law

California attorney Ken Sobel stands out in cannabis law for both the depth of his expertise and the deeply personal experiences that shaped it. His firsthand understanding of cannabis’s therapeutic value set him on a path of reform that continues to influence legislation, expand patient access, and support the industry nationwide.

Sobel’s work in cannabis law is steeped in activism. More than two decades ago, he got a first-hand introduction to the benefits of cannabis while serving as a caregiver for his mother-in-law. When prescribed opioids put her in a near-comatose state, a friend suggested trying cannabis instead.

The difference, Sobel says, was evident overnight. His mother-in-law was feeling better. Her pain had subsided, and her appetite had returned. She was “able to function, even though the sand in the hourglass was ticking away,” he remembers.

Sobel found the experience so profound, he soon changed the direction of his legal career.

“I immediately cast aside all of the conventional, big corporate, big insurance company, big clients that I had and said, ‘This is something that we have to correct, the injustice of prosecuting people for using something that provides a medical benefit,’” he tells IgniteIt in an online interview.

Making Progress for Patients

Sobel’s passion was rekindled almost twenty years later when the son of a close friend developed pancreatic cancer. In palliative care, with only weeks to live, Ryan Bartell told his father he no longer wanted to take fentanyl, which was causing him to sleep away the last days of his life.

Deciding that medical cannabis would be a better treatment, Ryan’s father, Jim Bartel, obtained a formulation developed for pain relief. The hospital, however, would not permit the medicine to be administered to Ryan, citing legal difficulties associated with using a federally illegal product.

More than a month later, Ryan was transferred to a hospital that would allow him to use the cannabis medicine. Although he was unable to swallow, Ryan was able to take a sublingual medicine formulated by a chemist. Once again, the result was “amazing.”

“Instead of being asleep from the fentanyl, the medical cannabis provided him with a quality of life for his final two and a half weeks that allowed him to have much-needed conversations with his family and time to reminisce and laugh with his many friends who came to visit,” Jim Bartell later wrote.

After his son’s death, Bartell and Sobel worked with a state legislator to draft the Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis in Health Care Facilities Act, also known as Ryan’s Law. Under the measure, terminally ill patients are permitted access to cannabis therapies in hospitals.

Beginning in early 2019, the two friends lobbied lawmakers in the California legislature to pass Ryan’s Law. Despite unanimous passage in both chambers, however, the governor vetoed the bill. Undaunted, the pair continued, and in 2021, the governor signed the Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis in Health Care Facilities Act into law.

Since then, Minnesota and Maryland have also adopted Ryan’s Law. Explaining they’ve been “working constantly” on the legislation, Sobel says he expects about 10 more states to enact similar laws in early 2026.

Sobel has also led change in other areas, writing the first bill to legalize cannabis in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he is a partner in a company with plans to begin cultivation next spring. Licensed to practice law in California and Arizona, he also provides consulting and legal services to clients in the cannabis industry nationwide.

“Most of everything I do is mergers and acquisitions, for the most part, and then occasionally it’s representing a new buyer who’s in the space,” he explains, adding that he also assists clients with their licensing applications and other legal needs.

Based in San Diego, California, Sobel is available to represent clients both nationally and internationally. He is also active with the Cannabis Nurses Network, a professional nursing and professional development organization for nurses worldwide.