Sponsored by
FEATURING A FULL DAY OF MARIJUANA EDUCATION WITH RENOWNED SPEAKERS TO BRING ADULTS UP TO SPEED ON RECENT RESEARCH ON THE DANGERS OF YOUTH MARIJUANA USE ON ADDICTION, MENTAL ILLNESS, SUICIDE, AND MORE!
This hybrid conference will be held LIVE in Lone Tree, CO, and LIVE STREAMED to virtual attendees. All attendees, live and virtual, will receive access to the recordings for 30 days to watch on your own time. This event is appropriate for educators, community-based organizations, school administrators, drug prevention specialists, mental health professionals, parents, teachers, coalitions, law enforcement, counselors, and anyone else working with youth, who need to understand the latest science around the harms of youth marijuana use.
You’ll participate in real-time conference presentations and interact with the speakers through Q&A sessions (via chat if you’re virtual).
DATE: Wednesday, July 6, 2022
TIME: 8:00 registration – 8:30 start – 5:30 end (includes breakfast, lunch, materials, parking, and all-day beverages)
LOCATION: The LIVE session will be held at the Conference Center at RidgeGate, 9878 Schwab Way Suite 401 (Summit Room), Lone Tree, CO 80124. The virtual session will be LIVE STREAMED to any internet browser (not Zoom). All attendees will receive access to the recordings for 30 days to watch or review at their convenience.
AGENDA
8:30 Laura Stack, Johnny’s Ambassadors – Emcee – Welcome and Johnny’s Warning
9:00 Libby Stuyt, MD – Youth Marijuana Addiction – The Science and the Treatment
10:00 Break
10:15 Karen Randall, MD – Cases From the Emergency Department: The Real Life End Points of Marijuana Legalization
11:15 Ken Finn, MD, IASIC – The Opioid and Cannabis Connection
12:15 Lunch and Conversation with Ben Cort
1:00 Luke Niforatos, SAM – Impacts of Marijuana Legalization on Youth in CO and Nationwide
2:00 LaTisha Bader, Ph.D. – Women and Girls and Weed
3:00 Break
3:15 Brad Roberts, MD – Psychosis, Suicide, Hyperemesis, and the Not-So-Medical Marijuana
4:15 Kari Eckert – What Parents Need To Know About Youth Substance Abuse and Suicide
5:15 Laura Stack – Close and Call To Action
5:30 Adjourn
Speaker Sessions
8:30 Laura Stack, Founder & CEO, Johnny’s Ambassadors
Welcome and Johnny’s Warning
Laura Stack was best known in the business world for her professional moniker, The Productivity Pro. Her 30-year career as a keynote speaker, bestselling author of eight productivity books, and corporate spokesperson came to a screeching halt on November 20, 2019, when her 19-year-old son, Johnny, died by suicide after becoming psychotic from dabbing high-THC marijuana concentrates. Laura responded by forming the nonprofit, Johnny’s Ambassadors, to educate parents and teens about the dangers of today’s high-THC marijuana on adolescent brain development, mental illness, and suicide. Her platform now brings education, awareness, and prevention curriculum to parents, drug prevention conferences, community groups, and schools to stop youth marijuana use. She is a powerful speaker who brings Johnny’s personal warning and solid research together in her new book, The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Johnny Stack’s Life and Death Story.
9:00 Libby Stuyt, MD
Youth Marijuana Addiction: The Science and the Treatment
Libby is a retired addiction psychiatrist and a clinical faculty member of the CU School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. After serving for 20 years as the Director of the CO Mental Health Institute at the Pueblo Circle Program, Dr. Stuyt believes, “High-potency marijuana is the worst drug we have because it is so insidious. Everyone has ‘normalized’ it and believes it is safe.”
10:15 Karen Randall, MD
Cases From the Emergency Department: The Real Life End Points of Marijuana Legalization
Dr. Karen Randall is an emergency medicine physician. She has had residency training in family practice, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. Prior to moving back to Colorado, Dr. Randall taught residents and medical students at a large teaching hospital in Detroit. She currently practices emergency medicine in Southern Colorado, where she is the vice president of case management for the emergency department. Dr. Randall has a certificate in Cannabis Science and Medicine from the University of Vermont.
11:15 Ken Finn, MD
The Opioid and Cannabis Connection
Dr. Kenneth P. Finn, M.D. has practiced pain medicine for 24 years. He served on the CO Governor’s Task Force on Amendment 64 and the CO Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council. Dr. Finn is an Executive Board Member of the American Board of Pain Medicine. He is also involved in the Colorado Pain Society and Colorado Medical Society’s work to manage the state’s opioid epidemic.
12:15 Ben Cort – Luncheon Speaker
How the Pot Industry Targets Our Youth
From non-profits to hospitals to private programs, Ben has been a leader inside of many forms of addiction treatment and prevention. From 2017-2020, Ben was a consultant to various treatment programs, state governments, professional and collegiate athletics, and labor. He is now CEO of the Foundry Steamboat Springs, an inpatient treatment program for men in the mountains of Colorado. His TED talk “Surprising Truths about Legalizing Cannabis” has been viewed over 2.5 million times.
1:00 Luke Niforatos
Impacts of Marijuana Legalization on Youth in CO and Nationwide
Luke is the Executive Vice President of one of the nation’s leading non-profit, non-partisan marijuana policy organizations, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). Prior to SAM, Luke worked in management in nonprofit health care as well founding and selling a digital health startup. Luke graduated from the University of Denver and lives in south Denver with his lovely wife and two daughters.
2:00 LaTisha Bader, Ph.D.
Young Women and Weed
Dr. Bader has worked in the field of mental health and addiction for more than 18 years. She graduated from the University of North Texas in 2007 with a PhD in counseling psychology and specialization in sport psychology and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Dependency at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She is a Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Addiction Counselor and a Certified Mental Performance Consultant working with elite athletes and teams.
3:15 Brad Roberts, MD
Psychosis, Suicide, Hyperemesis, and the Not-So-Medical Marijuana
Marijuana legalization has led to increases in psychoses, suicide, recurrent vomiting episodes termed cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and patients using marijuana instead of other treatments for their medical care resulting in adverse consequences. These patients present to the ED with adverse consequences to themselves, their families, other patients, the cost of medical care, and affect ED overcrowding.
Brad Roberts was born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado. After graduating Cum Laude from Brigham Young University, completing medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and completing residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico where he served as one of the chief residents, he returned back home, where he works at Parkview Health System with Southern Colorado Emergency Medicine Associates.
4:15 Kari Eckert
What Parents Need To Know About Youth Substance Abuse and Suicide
As Robbie’s mom and the executive director of Robbie’s Hope, Kari devotes the majority her time to advocating for youth mental health awareness and suicide prevention. She certified to give advice on strategies for youth suicide prevention as a QPR trainer and a youth mental health first aid trainer. She has given dozens of presentations on youth mental health and suicide prevention and has hosted three galas for the Robbie’s Hope Foundation. She worked closely with teens and mental health professionals to create the “Robbie’s Hope Adult Handbook”series and all other resources, programming, and legislative reform projects developed by the organization. Prior to raising two beautiful kids and co-founding Robbie’s Hope with her husband Jason, Kari was owner of Roberts-Eckert Funeral Home in Forest Lake, MN. She has her graduate degree in mortuary science from the University of Minnesota and an undergraduate degree in psychology from North Dakota State University.
5:15 Closing with Laura Stack
Call To Action – Sponsors
5:30 Adjourn