Plenary #10: Controversy in Mental Health: Cannabis PRO and CON / Ethan Russo, MD (Pro); Seth Ammerman, MD (Con)

 
Seth Ammerman, M.D., is a Clinical Professor in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Ammerman is the founder and medical director of the Teen Health Van, a mobile clinic program providing comprehensive primary health care services to homeless, uninsured, and underinsured youth. Dr. Ammerman’s research interests include tobacco and substance use in adolescents; at-risk youth; eating disorders; and use of mobile technology for improving adolescent health. Dr. Ammerman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), chair of the northern California chapter of the AAP Substance Abuse Committee, and a former member of the national AAP Committee on Substance Use and Prevention. He is a member of the medical honors society Alpha Omega Alpha and is a Fellow of the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine. In 2012 Dr. Ammerman received a Silicon Valley Business Journal Health Care Heroes award. He also received the national AAP Founders Award in 2012 for his work in community adolescent health. In 2014 Dr. Ammerman received a Bay Area Jefferson Award for Public Service, and in 2015 received a further honor of a Jefferson Award Silver Medal. In October 2015 Dr. Ammerman became Board Certified in Addiction Medicine. Ethan Russo, MD, is a board-certified neurologist, psychopharmacology researcher, and Director of Research and Development of the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (ICCI). Previously, from 2015-2017, he was Medical Director of PHYTECS, a biotechnology company researching and developing innovative approaches targeting the human endocannabinoid system (ECS). From 2003-2014, he served as Senior Medical Advisor, medical monitor and study physician to GW Pharmaceuticals for numerous Phase I-III clinical trials of Sativex® for alleviation of cancer pain unresponsive to optimized opioid treatment and initial studies of Epidiolex® for intractable epilepsy. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (Psychology), and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, before residencies in Pediatrics in Phoenix, Arizona and in Child and Adult Neurology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was a clinical neurologist in Missoula, Montana for 20 years. He has held faculty appointments in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Montana, in Medicine at the University of Washington, and as visiting professor, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a former president of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and former Chairman of the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the American Botanical Council. He is author/editor of seven books on cannabis and medicinal herbs, and has also published numerous book chapters, and over fifty articles in neurology, pain management, cannabis, and ethnobotany. He has consulted or lectured on these topics in 38 states and Canadian provinces and 34 countries.