A medical marijuana card does not follow the standard of care for prescribing antibiotics or pain medications.  There is no benefit-harm calculation for cannabis cards. A concerned parent calls into High Truths because of the mental health harms cannabis caused his son.  Dr. D'Souza is one of the leading scientific experts on cannabis and head of Cannabis Research Center at Yale.  He teaches us about cannabis and the brain. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine and a staff psychiatrist at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS). He received his medical degree from John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India in 1986 and completed his psychiatric residency at State University of New York Downstate in 1992 followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Psychopharmacology and Neurosciences at Yale University School of Medicine. He then joined the faculty in the Dept. of Psychiatry at Yale and VA Connecticut Healthcare System. He is an active clinician, teacher and researcher, 30 years of experience. Clinical Administration: He directs the Neuropsychiatry Program at VA Connecticut Healthcare System, the clinical service that cares for veterans with serious mental illnesses including psychotic disorders, mood disorders and personality disorders. He also chairs the Research and Development Committee at VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Research Administration: He directs the Neurobiological Studies Unit where experimental psychopharmacological studies are conducted. He serves as the Chair of the Research and Development Committee of VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Education: He is actively involved in teaching residents. In recognition of his contributions as a teacher, he received the Yale Psychiatry resident’s teaching award in 2008. He also directs the VA Schizophrenia Research Fellowship program the training ground for a number of current researchers. He is a mentor for a number of junior faculty who have career awards. Pathophysiological Research: He directs the Schizophrenia Neuropharmacology Research Group at Yale (SNRGY). Over the last 3 decades, he has employed three approaches to his research. He has conducted experimental psychopharmacological studies with ketamine, amphetamine, THC, nicotine, salvinorin A in healthy human volunteers and patients to evaluate the contributions of various neurotransmitter systems to the pathophysiology of psychosis, cognitive deficits, and reward dysfunction. He also uses in vivoneuroreceptor imaging to study schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder with ligands that bind to synaptic vesicles, muscarinic receptors, CB1 receptors, etc. He is also involved in a consortium to collect fluid biomarkers in schizophrenia. Treatment Research: In parallel to these studies of pathophysiology, he has conducted phase 1 - 4 clinical trials to develop new treatments schizophrenia, mood disorders and cannabis use disorder. More recently he has been investigating the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds (psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine) in the treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions including depression and migraine. His research is funded by the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA), VA R&D and several foundations. His work has been published in the highest impact Psychiatry journals including Molecular Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qDmD8DsAAAA

Fentanyl has been used as a chemical weapon in warfare. But we do not have to wait for a drone attack from a foreign county. Today 183 will die of fentanyl that is origination from foreign lands. How do you prepare for a chemical attack? You can't completely prepare.  Knowing the high stakes risks and loss of life, we need to prevent such a scenario in the first place. Dr. Gregory Ciottone is recent President of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine, and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is an Instructor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), and the Founding Director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Fellowship in Disaster Medicine. Dr. Ciottone also serves as the Director of Medical Preparedness for the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University, a joint program of the HSPH and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and sits on the faculty committee for the Harvard University Scholars at Risk program. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the American College of Emergency Physicians. As a former member of the United States National Disaster Medical System, Dr. Ciottone was Commander of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) Massachusetts-2, one of the first federal teams deployed into Ground Zero responding to the 9/11 attacks. He is a Founding Member of the US Department of Homeland Security and has been a consultant to the White House Medical Unit for the past three administrations. Dr. Ciottone’s clinical and field experience includes 25 years as a practicing emergency physician and over 500 missions as a flight physician on an aeromedical helicopter service. He has conducted educational programs in more than 30 countries around the world and has served as a disaster response fellowship director for the International Atomic Energy Agency. Dr. Ciottone has written over 150 scholarly works, including his textbook Ciottone’s Disaster Medicine, now in its 3rd edition and considered the leading textbook in the field. He is the 2018 recipient of the American College of Emergency Physicians Disaster Medical Sciences Award, and the 2020 recipient of the American Academy of Disaster Medicine Distinguished Service Award. CARFENTANIL DRONE ATTACK SIMULATION The New England Journal of Medicine put out an educational video based on my 2018 Toxidrome Recognition in Chemical Weapons Attack article. The video simulates a  Carfentanil drone attack. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp2302441

The CDC published their second and updated version of their Opioid and Pain Guidelines? Dr. Chou, one the leading authors discusses what is new to the guidelines. Roger Chou, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, OHSU, and the Pacific Northwest EPC Director. Dr. Chou’s is trained in internal medicine and is internationally recognized as an expert in opioids and pain. Dr. Chou has led over 70 systematic reviews, including numerous reviews on pain, opioids, overdose prevention, and addiction. Dr. Chou has also conducted primary research on opioids. His reviews were used to develop the 2016 CDC opioid guideline and other high-impact guidelines in this area. He served on the Steering Committee for the 2016 CDC guideline, an NIH-convened research task force for low back pain, an NIH work group to inform the Federal Pain Research Strategy, a federal interagency work group on reducing adverse events associated with opioids, and a CDC opioid prescribing estimates workgroup. He served on a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee on Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Acute Pain, serves on the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic, was Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Back and Neck Group and is now a Senior Editor of the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group, and is on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. He also serves as the methodologist for a number of past, and current, World Health Organization guideline development efforts.

  California Department of Public Health Substance and Addiction Prevention Branch  Youth Cannabis Prevention Initiative Cannabis use among youth is more common than either binge drinking or smoking tobacco According to the California Healthy Kids Survey, 16% of 11th graders are current cannabis users. Today’s youth are in a season of self-discovery, seeking meaning, connections, independence, and learning how to regulate and manage their emotions. Youth are increasingly turning to cannabis in this developmental stage to bond with friends and to cope with day-to-day stressors Under age cannabis use affects two key pillars of mental health: Social well-being – how youth socialize, bond, and make meaningful connections with others Emotional well-being – how youth cope with mental health challenges Cannabis use in youth is associated with: Impairments in cognition including memory, learning, and attention Increased risk of psychotic, mood, and addictive disorders Increased risk of mental health issues In order to support and encourage local communities and partners to get involved in the campaign, CDPH will be hosting regular webinars – knowledge sharing opportunities to utilize campaign learnings and materials, and will provide other resources. CDPH will also put together educational toolkits for local communities and partners that provide accurate and actionable materials, such as conversation guides, fact sheets, youth mental health support resources, and more. Mind Over Marijuana Campaign - campaign for teens from CDPH, California Department of Public Health Let's Talk Cannabis - campaign tool for parents from CDPH, California Department of Public Health Dr. Halpern-Felsher is a developmental psychologist whose research has focused on cognitive and psychosocial factors involved in adolescents’ and young adults’ health-related decision-making, perceptions of risk and vulnerability, health communication, and risk behavior. Her research has focused on understanding and reducing health risk behaviors such as tobacco use, alcohol and marijuana use, risky driving, and risky sexual behavior. Her research has been instrumental in changing how providers discuss sexual risk with adolescents and has influenced national policies regulating adolescent and young adult tobacco use. As part of the Tobacco Center's of Regulatory Science (TCORS), she is the PI on an NIH/NCI and FDA-funded longitudinal study examining adolescents’ and young adults’ perceptions regarding as well as initiation, continuation, and cessation of current and new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Dr. Halpern-Felsher is also the founder and director of the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, an online curricular aimed at reducing and preventing youth tobacco use. Dr. Halpern-Felsher’s research and committee work have been instrumental in setting policy at the local, state, and national level. In California, Dr. Halpern-Felsher’s research was cited in support of school-based tobacco education initiatives within California’s Tobacco Education Research Oversight Committee’s 2012 Masterplan, and again in their 2017 Masterplan. This Masterplan sets funding priority areas for research, education and intervention for California. Dr. Halpern-Felsh