Policy Talks 2023
Medical Cannabis Research and Education at State Universities
Friday, April 27, 2023
Many states have adopted new and more permissive cannabis laws. This has prompted new industry and new cause for cannabis policy and education. Many universities, in turn, are involved or interested in cannabis research.
But continued federal prohibition has resulted in a legal grey area around cannabis, and moral questions around appropriate cannabis use and promotion remain unsettled. This uncertainty frustrates university efforts to research and educate about cannabis and to advise the industry and wider public.
In partnership with the National Center for Cannabis Research and Education, this year's Policy Talks event aims to identify, analyze, and untangle key issues around university involvement in cannabis research and education. We'll bring together industry experts, medical professionals, lawyers, advocates, politicians, and academic researchers to explore the university's legal, moral, and civic role in society's new relationship with cannabis.
Reasoning with Values in the Context of Medical Cannabis Programs
This piece didn't make it into our full cannabis white paper, but we've posted it here to provide additional context and as an example of practical ethical reasoning.
Resource Articles
Dr. Christine Roussel, PharmD, BCOP, BCSCP, is Doylestown Health’s Senior Executive Director of Pharmacy, Laboratory, and Medical Research. A graduate of the University of the Sciences’ Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, she holds a Bachelor’s in Pharmacology and Toxicology and a Doctorate in Pharmacy. She is a Board Certified Oncology Pharmacist, a Board Certified Sterile Compounding Pharmacist, and serves as the governor-appointed Institutional Member on the Pennsylvania Board of Pharmacy and the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Advisory Board. Dr. Roussel created and teaches the Medical Cannabis Certification Course at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and has facilitated clinical and regulatory education in drug compounding for eight years with Medisca Network/LP3 Network. She is a past president of the Pennsylvania Society of Health-System Pharmacists, co-founder of the International Society of Cannabis Pharmacists, and a Pennsylvania Delegate to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacy. Her accolades include Pennsylvania Society of Health-System Pharmacy’s Clinician of the Year (2016) and national recognition in the “40 Under 40 in Oncology” (2018).
Speakers
Christine Roussel
Senior Executive Director of Pharmacy, Laboratory and Medical Research, Doylestown Health
David Kroll, PhD
Professor Master’s Degree and Certificate Programs in Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences Director, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus,
Christopher Meyers, PhD
Director Emeritus, Kegley Institute for Ethics
Dr. Brooke Worster, MD
Program Director, MS in Medical Cannabis Science and Business, Thomas Jefferson University
Dr. Brooke Worster completed her internal medicine and chief residency at Temple University and fellowships in both pain management and palliative medicine at MGH and Dana Farber Cancer center. She is an associate professor of medicine in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and the director of the Division of Supportive Oncology. She is happy to be a clinician-researcher – practicing Supportive Medicine and cancer pain management for cancer patients. She has federal and private grant funding to study the use, impact, and perceptions of cannabis in various complex patient populations. Additionally, she serves as program director for the Master’s in Cannabis Medicine, Science and Business at Jefferson College of Emerging Health Professions.
Dr. Kroll is a natural products pharmacologist, educator, medical journalist, and educational administrator. He began his faculty career at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy in 1992, earning promotion and tenure in 1999 and conducting sabbatical research at Duke University in 2000. In 2001, Dr. Kroll moved to North Carolina, where he spent six years in the Natural Products Laboratory at RTI International and four years as Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at North Carolina Central University, with his research continuously funded by the NIH or the American Cancer Society. Later, as Director of Science Communications at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, he taught science journalism at North Carolina State University and worked as a freelance medical journalist. Returning to the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2019, Dr. Kroll combined his expertise in natural products research, education, and science communication to help launch programs in Cannabis Science & Medicine, including a continuing education program for health care practitioners, a graduate certificate, and a specialty track within the MS in Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Christopher Meyers, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Director Emeritus of the Kegley Institute of Ethics at CSU Bakersfield, where he served as Executive Director for nearly 35 years. A founding member of the institute, he has authored three books and around 60 academic articles on practical and professional ethics, along with writing editorial columns and consulting for organizations, particularly in health care. His current projects include an edited collection on ethical issues in practical ethics and a paper on COVID-19 vaccine exemptions. He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Media Ethics, Hospital Ethicist for Kern Medical Center and Adventist Health Kern County, and Clinical Professor of Ethics at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd School of Medicine. He earned his undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz and his PhD in Philosophy, with a Graduate Certificate in Bioethics, from the University of Tennessee. In his free time, he enjoys exploring California’s Eastern Sierra mountains, woodworking, and fly fishing.
