CannMed Coffee Talk

Lelehnia DuBois and Daniel Hendricks are longtime Humboldt County residents who are working to preserve the unique culture and cannabis genetics that have developed in the region. Along with other collaborators, they have created The Humboldt Grace Legacy Project for the purpose of working to protect, authenticate, and validate legacy cannabis genetics through collaborative design.  Lele...

Dr. Ethan Russo returns to the podcast to help us make sense of the slew of studies and articles claiming cannabis can treat and/or prevent COVID-19 infection. Dr. Russo is a board-certified neurologist, a psychopharmacology researcher, an author, a lecturer, and a consultant. He is a CannMed 2022 Keynote Presenter, where he will present on Cannabis and Psychiatry. Although Dr. Russo is not a viro...

Ini Afia is the Chief Science Officer at Cannasafe , a licensed cannabis testing lab in southern California. He has also set up multiple labs with best-in-class methodology, processes, and technology throughout his career. And at Cannasafe he has the team towards greater credibility, consistency, and accountability for their clients, regulators, and consumers. Ini returns to the podcast to discuss...

Dr. Bonni Goldstein returns to the podcast to discuss examples where cannabis may be a safer and more effective therapeutic than traditional pharmaceutical drugs. Bonni is one of the country’s most respected and experienced medical cannabis physicians, having treated thousands of patients with medical cannabis. She is the owner and medical director of Canna-Centers Wellness & Education . She i...

Allison Justice, PhD, is Co-owner and manages operations at The Hemp Mine, a 40-acre hemp farm that manufactures consumer-ready products. The Hemp Mine currently produces a wide array of different products ranging from smokeable flower to tinctures of different concentrations for both humans and animals. The Hemp Mine breeds, regional trials indoors and outdoors at scale in order to offer validate...

Amy Simpson and BigMike Straumietis talk about Humanity Heroes, a charity that is providing essential living supplies to the homeless community living on the streets and in shelters across America. BigMike, who you likely know as the CEO of Advanced Nutrients, founded Humanity Heroes with the idea that “if a company has the financial resources, then it has a social responsibility to help humanity...

Dedi Meiri, PhD runs a lab at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology that investigates the anti-tumor effects of cannabinoids. More specifically, his team identifies which combination of cannabinoids can kill cancer cells. Most notably, his team identified three specific cannabinoids that kill leukemia cells and that formulation is currently being tested in a clinical trial in Israel.  D...

Collin Palmer is the Chief Experience Officer at Vessel Life Science. He has been obsessed with growing cannabis since he started growing in his backyard at 15 years old. Since then he has consulted with many cannabis companies in a variety of areas including genetic selection, lab optimization, product development, branding, and more. Over the past several years he has worked on bringing that exp...

Michael Levinsohn is a criminal and civil defense attorney with 20 years of experience representing people in all areas of the cannabis industry, including patients, cultivators, retailers, and healthcare providers. We catch up on new developments in cannabis law since last we spoke, including  Ryan’s Law, which requires California hospitals providing palliative care allow terminally ill pati...

David Joly, PhD is Associate Professor at the University of Moncton, where his team investigates cannabis and cannabinoids. Dr. Joly has unique expertise in the field of plant cannabis genomics and their associated microbes, and his work has been cited more than 1000 times.  Earlier this year, Dr. Joly published a paper titled “ Genome-wide characterization of the  MLO  gene family...

Evelyn Alvarez is currently the Quality Assurance Director at Encore Labs. She has ten years of experience working on analytical instrumentation and in regulated lab environments including work on EPA and OSHA methods. She received a degree in Environmental Science with research experience on pesticides.  Evelyn was recently quoted in a Refinery29 article that revealed an unfortunate element...

Justin Bueno, PhD is the Scientific Director of Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc. Since joining Goodness Growth Holdings in 2018, Dr. Bueno has published two peer-reviewed articles in the field of cannabis science. One article, published in the  Journal of Cannabis Research , described the validation and the science behind the novel TerpSafe packaging system towards the preservation of terpenes in ca...

John Malanca co-founded United Patients Group (UPG), a trusted resource and leader in medical cannabis information and education for patients, physicians, pharmacists, governments, and organizations, both domestically and internationally. UPG also acts as a virtual hand for patients and their loved ones struggling with chronic and terminal illnesses by helping them navigate through this ever-chang...

Dr. Jeffrey Raber is CEO of the Werc Shop, an independent testing lab established in 2010. Dr. Raber is trained as an organic chemistry scientist, but he is also a serial entrepreneur, patent inventor, and executive, with over a decade of experience in cannabis testing. At CannMed 2018, Dr. Raber presented “Cannabis Compositions Viewed Through Molecular Glasses” which you can view on our CannMed A...

BigMike Straumieitis is the Since 1983, BigMike Straumieitis has worked tirelessly to find new ways to bring cannabis to its true genetic potential—legally and illegally. He’s overseen the cultivation of over a million pot plants over the course of his career. in 1999, BigMike founded Advanced Nutrients, the first fertilizer company with products specifically designed for cannabis plants. Today, A...

Kevin McKernan is Chief Scientific Officer at Medicinal Genomics. Kevin is back to talk about Psilocybin and the mushrooms that create it. Kevin and the team at MGC have published a highly contiguous reference genome for Psilocybe cubensis , which some listeners may know is the species of mushroom often referred to as the magic mushroom. Kevin and the team have also sequenced several different mus...

William Vizuete, PhD is Chief Scientific Officer for Byers Scientific where he analyzes cannabis and hemp plant emissions and helps to develop state-of-the-art odor and emission mitigation solutions and equipment. For the past six years, Dr. Vizuete has led a team of cannabis industry experts focused on site-specific research to increase overall knowledge of cannabis industry emissions, educate lo...

Dr. Michelle Shuffett is an accomplished healthcare executive, marketing strategist, speaker, and wellness enthusiast with 20+ years of experience encompassing a unique blend of clinical medicine, communications, and leadership. Much of her recent work has been in the cannabis industry, highlighting the potential health benefits of cannabis and CBD.  She recently joined Radicle Science as a foundi...

Greg Gerdeman, PhD is a neuroscientist and educator with expertise in the physiological actions of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system. Recently, Greg has gotten involved in the conversation around Delta-8 THC. He comes at the topic from a neuroscientist’s perspective questioning how much we know about how Delta-8 THC affects the body and the brain. He also raises important questions abo...

Alice Moon is a PR and marketing professional who has worked in the cannabis space since 2011. In 2018, Alice was diagnosed with Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, a condition that leads to repeated and severe bouts of vomiting when she consumes cannabinoids. Since being diagnosed with CHS, Alice has ceased cannabis use completely and become an advocate for safe and mindful cannabis consumption, aw...

Dr. Debra Kimless is the CMO of Pure Green Pharmaceuticals, where she oversees clinical medical testing, patient and physician educational programs, and medical product development. Deb and her team recently published an open-label clinical trial for treating diabetic neuropathic pain with a water-soluble CBD tablet.  In our conversation we discuss: Results from her clinical trial for treating dia...

Dr. Peter Grinspoon is a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He is a  Contributing Editor  to Harvard Health Publications and the Harvard Health Blog, where he frequently writes about cannabis medicine issues. Dr. Grinspoon also writes about addiction, both from the perspective of a clinician treating the disorder and a...

We discuss dosing medical cannabis with Dr. Dustin Sulak. Dustin is an osteopathic general practitioner who focuses on treating patients with refractory conditions using an individualized, health-centered approach. Dr. Sulak is a founder of Integr8 Health, a medical practice in Maine that follows over 8,000 patients using medical cannabis, and cofounder of Healer.com, a medical cannabis education...

We discuss the chemistry of cannabis with Markus Roggen, PhD. In his various roles and positions, Dr. Roggen oversaw multiple teams that are focused on the whole processing flow of cannabis production, from harvest and drying, through processing and extraction, all the way to the formulation and quality control/analytics. In addition to cannabinoids, Dr. Roggen’s company, Complex Biotech Dis...

We talk with Dr. Andrew Horwitz Vice President, R&D at Sestina Bio LLC about producing cannabinoids outside the cannabis plant. Previously, Andrew managed the Cannabinoid R&D program at Demetrix, where he helped develop the process for using genetically modified yeast cells to produce cannabinoids. We discuss: The advantages of using yeast cells to produce cannabinoids instead of cannabis...