Speakers Bureau

Laura Stack, Founder & CEO of Johnny’s Ambassadors

• The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Preventing Youth THC Use
  We need to dispel the myths about THC to teens and educate them about the possible harms to prevent its use.
• The Dangerous Connection Between Youth THC Use and Suicidal Thinking, Attempts, and Suicide 
  Many people are unaware of the connection between youth THC use and suicidality. This session will present the latest THC/suicide data locally, nationally, and globally.
• What is 710 Day? A Tour in Pictures of a Colorado Dispensary
  Laura takes adults on a pictorial tour through a local Denver marijuana dispensary, so you can see what it’s REALLY like in a legal marijuana store today. 
• The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Johnny Stack’s Life and Death Story
  Before marijuana, Johnny Stack was a computer whiz with a 4.0 GPA and a perfect math score on the SAT. On Nov. 20, 2019, Johnny took his life. Laura traces the first warning signs, their attempts at rehabilitation, her desperation, and his demise.
• A Mother’s Story of Her Son’s Death Resulting from Marijuana-Induced Psychosis – And How to Keep It from Happening to You
  Through this tragic, transparent tale, Laura hopes to use her pain and research to help parents talk to their children about the dangers of today’s marijuana on the developing adolescent mind.
• A Sneak Peek of Laura’s new book, The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Johnny Stack’s Life and Death Story
  This is the poignant life-and-death story of Johnny Stack, whose young and vibrant life ended by suicide after his descent into addiction to high-potency marijuana and cannabis-induced psychosis.

LaTisha Bader, Ph.D

• Women and Weed: Trends for the 21^st Century
  Bader outlines the rapidly changing culture of cannabis use highlighting potency and routes of administration, perception of risk, and common exchanges regarding substance use and women’s issues.

Mike Barnes

• Treating Cannabis Use Disorder in Young Adults: Habilitation vs. Rehabilitation
  Mental health professionals are gradually acknowledging the significance of Cannabis Use Disorder, and this presentation aims to cover essential aspects of its treatment.

Carla J. Berg, PhD, MBA, LP

• Cannabis Retail, Marketing, and Young Adult Perceptions and Use Behaviors
  This presentation will provide an overview of cannabis-related state laws and regulations, particularly those related to retail, and will also provide insights into state’s cannabis related social equity initiatives and hemp-derived cannabinoid regulations.

Debbie Berndt

• Marijuana Education and a Perspective on Teen Substance Use for Parents
  Every parent is the first line of defense against youth drug and alcohol use. Most parents are ill-equipped but there is a tremendous amount of scientific understanding today that can help.
• Substance Free Athletics – Parent Module
  Substance Free Athletics, engages coaches, athletes, and parents, the three major stakeholders in high-school athletics, in an effort to reduce under-age substance use (marijuana, nicotine and alcohol).
• 21st Century Understanding of THC and Prevention Using an Effective Prevention Framework
  Cut through the confusion and overwhelm when it comes to THC Prevention. 

Jame H. Berry, DO

• Avoiding Potholes: Navigating the Cautionary Trail of Cannabis As Medicine
  As the perception of harm has decreased and the perception of therapeutic benefit has proliferated, the number of people using cannabis has increased. This increase in use has coincided with significant mental health problems such as addiction, psychosis, and suicide, especially in young people. 

Dr. Alexandra Chisholm

• Cognitive and Affective Effects of High Dose THC During Adolescence: Implications for Psychiatric Disorders
  Despite positive perceptions towards cannabis and increases in consumption, emerging evidence shows that use of high potency products has negative impacts on mental health.

Crystal Collier, Ph.D

• Interventions for Youth Behavioral Health Issues: What to Do When You Discover Your Teen is Using Marijuana
  Youth who exhibit behavioral health problems including substance use or behavioral problems need psychological care.
• The Neuroscience of High-Risk Behavior: Scientific Justification for Marijuana Use Prevention
  In this presentation, participants learn how high-risk behavior affect the growing brain and cause addiction. 
• Know Your NeuroWhereAbouts
  Parents, caregivers, and school staff who know kid’s NeuroWhereAbouts understand phases of brain development and shape executive functioning skills accordingly. 

Ben Cort

• Commercializing 21st Century Weed
  The publicized and politically charged world of drug policy has undergone immense changes over the past several years and those changes manifest not just in policy but also in the physical makeup of the cannabis plant and products derived from components of the plant. 
• How the Pot Industry Targets Our Youth: Lessons Learned from Colorado
  Learn the truth about how Big Marijuana targets their next generation of addicts, so you are prepared to discuss the harms with your children.
• Surprising Truths About Legalizing Marijuana
  When marijuana is legalized in the next state, the pot industry moves in to claim its next victims: our youth. 

Dr. Deepak D’Souza

• Cannabis, Cannabinoids, and Mental Illness
  This talk incorporates new research findings on the potential use of cannabinoids, and synthetic cannabinoids, in an array of mental illnesses, balanced against the potential adverse effects. 

Grace Davis

• Johnny and Me: My Recovery from Cannabis-Induced Psychosis
  Davis recognizes the importance of drug-free initiatives and accessible mental health resources for youth. When Johnny confided in her about his mental health struggles, including psychosis and suicidality, she repeatedly advocated for and supported him. Her reports requesting mental health interventions for Johnny were not ethically addressed by those who received them.

Andy Duran

• How to Talk to Your Community about Marijuana (In a Way that People will Listen)
  Participants will learn effective messaging strategies that will help our community’s youth and parents to learn the truth about marijuana, and the effects of legalization on our community. 

Kari Eckert

• What Parents Need To Know About Youth Substance Abuse and Suicide
  The presentation will commence with a discussion of the severity of the teen suicide epidemic in Colorado, drawing from statistical data regarding suicide deaths, intentions for suicide, and mental health amongst teens in our state.
  

Ken Finn, MD, IASIC

• What Parents Need to Know About Medical Marijuana
  Many parents believe that marijuana is a “safe, herbal, medical, good pain reliever.” Dr. Ken Finn seeks to bust that myth in this webinar, where you’ll be provided with the correct information about medical marijuana use. 
• The Opioid and Cannabis Connection
  Dr. Finn is a pain management physician, who will discuss why “medical” cannabis isn’t a good alternative to treat pain. This presentation will discuss the difference between FDA approved, cannabis-based medicines and “medical” dispensary cannabis, as well as the connection between youth THC use and future opioid use.
• Adolescent Impacts of THC Use: The Brain, Body, and Behavior
  The adolescent brain, undergoing critical synaptic pruning and myelination through the mid-20s, is uniquely vulnerable to THC’s disruption of endocannabinoid signaling, with consequences that can be permanent.

Professor Daniel Freeman

• Paranoia: A Clinical Psychologist’s Perspective
  Paranoia is fearing others are trying to harm you when they are not. For the past two decades Prof Daniel Freeman has been developing the understanding and treatment of severe paranoia. 

Dr. Joshua Gowin

• Brain Function Outcomes of Recent and Lifetime Cannabis Use
  Cannabis use has increased globally, but its effects on brain function are not fully known, highlighting the need to better determine recent and long-term brain activation outcomes of cannabis use. 

Sian Kim Harris, PhD, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC, CPH

• Supporting Pediatric Primary Care Providers: Screening for Cannabis Use in Adolescent Patients and Counseling Towards Behavior Change
  Evidence-based strategies for high-quality universal cannabis use screening and brief counseling for adolescents seen in pediatric primary care offices.
  

Keith Hayes

• The Real Truth About THC and How It’s Affecting Our Young People
  Hayes leads a pioneering program that supports teenagers in overcoming substance use disorders through a combination of peer-based recovery, trauma-informed care, and project-based learning. 
  

Yasmin Hurd PhD

• Cannabis and the Adolescent Brain: Impact on Development, Addiction, and Epigenetic Trajectory
  This talk will provide insights about biological mechanisms underlying the developmental effects of cannabis exposure—especially THC—and examine how these changes may influence mental health risk later in life.
  

Dr. Jibran Khokhar

• Vaping, Edibles, and the Developing Brain: What Can we Learn from Animal Models?
  A comprehensive understanding of the genetic, developmental, and withdrawal-related facets of cannabis use, with a special focus on routes of administration and pharmacokinetics.
  
  
  

Dr. Emily Kline

• Motivational Interviewing for Loved Ones: Parents Can Do This!
  Motivational Interviewing is a communication style that health professionals use to talk with patients about making healthy changes like reducing drug and alcohol use, taking medications regularly, or other lifestyle improvements. 

Dr. Steven Laviolette

• Understanding the Impacts of Adolescent THC Exposure on Mental Health Risk
  Dr. Laviolette’s Laboratory is focused on unraveling the mysteries of the emotional brain. 

Kriya Lendzion

• Catching Them Upstream: Early Intervention into Youth THC Use
  THC products trending among youth are becoming increasingly potent, appealing, and easier to conceal, resulting in increasing rates of cannabis use disorders, overdoses, physical illnesses, and mental health consequences.

Roneet Lev, MD

• Medical Marijuana Fact or Fiction
  Learn fact from fiction as Dr. Lev takes you through from glaucoma to seizures dispelling the myths of “medical” marijuana based on science and clinical experience as an emergency physician.
• The Reality from the Emergency Room
  Is marijuana a medicine? It’s very confusing. Isn’t it safer than deadly opioids for pain? No one dies of marijuana, right? 

Mario Lintz, MD, PhD

• Cannabis use and the role of development in adolescent substance use and treatment
  A basic understanding of aspects of development that put adolescents at higher risks for substance use and addiction.

Dr. Bertha Madras

• Emerging Challenges for THC Policy and Prevention
  The rationale for re-scheduling marijuana, psychedelic substances, stigma and de-stigmatization, and emerging challenges to prevention.
• Marijuana: State of the Science
  An overview of marijuana: how it acts in the brain, risk factors, brain changes, addiction, deficits-cognition, amotivation, psychiatric problems, safety issues, psychosis, schizophrenia, depression, and pain.

Jo McGuire

• Youth Marijuana Prevention and Education
  Jo will then share her personal story as the mother of a teen addict. She will show attendees what contemporary cannabis products look like and how they are marketed directly to their children. 
• What Every Parent Should Know About Today’s Marijuana
  An in-depth description of how and why adolescent cannabis use is harmful to the developing adolescent brain.
• Workplace Wellness Means Whole Family Health 
  How employees are negatively affected by family addiction and how today’s legal marijuana plays a role in wreaking havoc in the workplace. 

Dr. Erik Messamore

• THIS Is How Cannabis Can CAUSE Psychosis
  This talk will cover the relationship between cannabis, psychosis, and schizophrenia, including who may be at risk and how big the risk may be.
• Cannabis Pharmacology, Teen Neurochemistry: The Science of Risk
  This talk explains why adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to the neurochemical effects of modern cannabis. 

Melissa Moore

• This is NOT Your Grandpa’s Pot – Leading the Charge on Cannabis – Old Drugs, New Threats®
  Taking a page out of the traditional tobacco industry, cannabis companies are continuously looking for new ways to hook the next generation of customers. 

Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Cannabis Use Disorder: A Toxic Couple
  Studies show that those diagnosed with ADHD are more likely to develop a Cannabis Use Disorder. 

Robert Lee Page II, PharmD, MSPH

• Natural Does Not Mean Safe: Knowing the Potential Cardiovascular Risks for Younger Adults Using Cannabis
  Cannabis use, particularly daily use, is associated with increased cardiovascular risks, including a higher chance of heart attack, stroke, and coronary artery disease. 

Michelle R. Peace, PhD

• Up In Smoke? The Industry’s Narratives About Cannabis Quality Assurance
  The cannabis industry created and advertised a narrative for consumers about the use and safety of cannabis that have been largely accepted with limited scientific foundation. 

Matt Poling, MD

• Marijuana MythBusters: Common Misconceptions and the Medical Evidence
  The most common misconceptions surrounding cannabis and see how the substance’s reputation with the public compares to the reality of the medical evidence.

Karen Randall, MD

• Cases From the Emergency Department: The Real Life End Points of Marijuana Legalization
• CANNABIS: The Basics and Beyond from the Emergency Room
  New high-potency THC and cannabis products are dangerous. Issues being seen in the emergency department include cannabis-induced hyperemesis, acute psychosis, polysubstance abuse, EVALI (vaping lung injuries), and cardiovascular/stroke presentations in youth and teens.

Nik Rao, MD, Msc

• Cannabis Cessation Strategies and Withdrawal Management
  Both cultural perception and accelerating legalization of cannabis has led to a landscape of increasing short and long-term morbidity especially amongst teens and young adults, who are at the highest risk of cannabis-associated neuropsychiatric sequelae. 
• Cannabis-Induced Psychosis: Psychosis and Mania
  The basics of psychosis and mania and what makes bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder different, and what makes them similar.

Paula Riggs, MD

• What Parents Need to Know about Adolescent Marijuana Use in a Growing Legalized Environment
  Current research findings on risks associated with adolescent-onset cannabis use, including neurocognitive deficits, psychosocial outcomes, psychosis, and other mental health problems. 

Brad Roberts, MD

• Psychosis, Suicide, Hyperemesis, and the Not-So-Medical Marijuana
  Dr. Brad Roberts is an Emergency Medicine Physician whose presentation covers recent cases from his last block of shifts (identifying features will be changed for privacy) with urine screens only positive for cannabis, including suicidality, psychosis, and vomiting.

Dr. Matthew Rossheim

• Derived Psychoactive Cannabis Products: the Harms of Delta-8 and Synthetic Cannabinoids
  This presentation explores the diverse range of products that have recently become available and discusses the accompanying public health concerns. 

Lynn Silver, MD, MPH, FAAP

• What Can We Do? Engaging to Change the Rules
  Dr. Silver will address characteristics of current state and local cannabis policy that are driving increasing adverse effects. 
• Cannabis and  Youth Mental Health: New Research on Cannabis Use in Adolescence and its Association with Serious Mental Illness
  New research on half a million California adolescents, which showed cannabis use to be associated with doubling of risk for psychotic and bipolar disorders, as well as increased risk for depression and anxiety. 

Libby Stuyt, MD

• The Intersection of High THC, Psychosis, Violence and Suicide
  The increasing concentration of THC in cannabis is resulting in increasing problems with cannabis use disorder, psychosis, violence, and suicide, especially in those whose brains are still developing.
• Youth Marijuana Addiction – The Science and the Treatment
• Problems with our High Potency THC Marijuana From the Perspective of an Addiction Psychiatrist
  The “commercialization” of this drug has allowed the potency of THC to dramatically increase and has resulted in numerous problems.
• Today’s High-Potency THC: Harming Our Most Vulnerable Citizens
  Do you understand what low vs. high potency marijuana products do to our children? Learn the science of what’s happening today vs. when you were a kid.
• Yes, Marijuana is Addictive
  Many people believe that marijuana is not addictive, but this is not true. Especially with the higher potency THC marijuana, it is definitely addictive, more so if you start using marijuana before your brain fully develops, as in before the mid 20s.

Sue Thau

• Marijuana Rescheduling: Understanding the Impacts and Implications
  An in-depth look at ongoing efforts to reschedule marijuana and the potential consequences for public health, policy, and prevention efforts. 

Dr. Christian Thurstone

• Marijuana and Our Children: The Blunt Truth
  Parents and those who work with teens will understand the science about marijuana’s effects on the developing brain and what they can do to protect their teens.
• The Green Adolescent Brain and Body
  Understand the impact of adolescent marijuana use on the developing brain and body.

Eric Voth, MD

• Should Marijuana Be a Medical Option?
  Parents should remember that marijuana remains a Schedule I drug. It has not been approved as safe and efficacious by the Food and Drug Administration at any level for adolescents. 

Dr. Aaron Weiner

• Guiding Positive Change: Promoting Health-First THC Policies in 2027 and Beyond
  With hemp-derived semi-synthetics set to be banned in November of 2026, there are a number of important lessons to reflect on about what got us to this point.
• Beyond Delta-8 & THC-O: The State of Semi-synthetic Cannabinoids in 2024
  An exploration of the current research and public policy surrounding semi-synthetic cannabinoids, and what we can expect in 2024 and beyond.
•  E-cigs, Vaping & Marijuana: Emerging Drug Trends in Today’s Adolescents
  Learn to tell fact from fiction about vaping and marijuana, including the impact of the THC and nicotine industries on public perception and the implications of use on health.

Susan Weiss

• State of the Science of Cannabis: Effects on Adolescents
  Cannabis products available today are more diverse and more potent than they were 20 years ago. 

Gianna Yunker, CIP, CAI, CFRS, CRS

• Reaching Resistant Youth: Family Systems Approaches to Early Intervention in Cannabis-Induced Psychosis
  Families and professionals are increasingly encountering young people experiencing paranoia, delusional thinking, or psychosis related to cannabis use, and often accompanied by denial, defiance, or withdrawal.