United In Compassion

The 2016 UIC Medicinal Cannabis Symposium program aimed to provide easy to understand expert knowledge; in support of a regulated, efficient, secure & reliable Australian

Medicinal Cannabis scheme; for the benefit of patients with many severe & life threatening illnesses & conditions.

Professor Cristina Sánchez - Complutense University Madrid, Spain

"The pre-clinical (and in some cases clinical) research demonstrating that Cannabis has a wide therapeutic potential is enormous and scientifically very solid.

At this point, combined efforts from basic researchers, clinicians, big or small pharmaceutical companies and legislators, should be made to transfer this knowledge from the labs to the clinics.

There is no reason to make patients wait any longer."

Cristina Sánchez (Madrid, Spain, 1971) graduated in Biology at Madrid Complutense University in 1994. She started her scientific career as an undergraduate student at the laboratory of Dr. Ramos and Dr. Fernández-Ruiz (School of Medicine, Complutense University), where she first took contact with the field of cannabinoid research. Once graduated, she moved to Dr. Guzmán’s laboratory (School of Biology, Complutense University), where she studied the effect of cannabinoids on lipid and carbohydrate intermediate metabolism first and on cancer cell proliferation later. She obtained her PhD with Honors in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Complutense University in 2000. During her postdoc at Dr. Piomelli’s laboratory (University of California Irvine, 2000-2003) she studied the involvement of another group of bioactive lipids (lysophosphatidic acid and related compounds) on pain initiation.

In 2004, Cristina returned to Spain with a “Ramón y Cajal” contract (aimed at repatriating Spanish researchers from abroad) and she started coordinating a new line of research within Dr. Guzmán’s laboratory. In particular, the goal of her research is to understand and exploit cannabinoids as potential antitumoral agents in breast cancer. More recently, she has also focused her attention on new cannabinoid receptors and their possible involvement in cannabinoid antitumoral action in breast cancer and other type of tumors.

Associate Professor Dr David Caldicott

B.Sc(Hons)-[N.U.I.], MB.BS(Lond.), FCEM, Dip Clin Tox

Consultant Emergency Physician, JMO Supervisor,

Emergency Department, Calvary Hospital, Canberra

"the issue regarding medicinal Cannabis is simply one of compassion"

Alice O’Leary-Randall, B.A., L.P.N

Member, Board of Directors, American Cannabis Nurses Association
Member, Board of Directors, Mary’s Foundation of Caring

"medical access to Cannabis is a human and biological right"

Alice is a senior spokesperson for the Medical Cannabis movement.

www.medicalmarijuanapioneer.com

In 1976 her late husband, Robert C. Randall, became the first person in the U.S. to legally receive medical Cannabis.

The couple co-founded the medical Cannabis movement in America, assisting patients and educating the American public about the therapeutic potential of Cannabis. In 1980 they co-founded Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, the nation’s first non-profit organization devoted to medical cannabis issues.

Dr Jeffery Hergenrather MD - USA www.drjeffhergenrather.com

"The elucidation of the endocannabinoid system, eCB system, is the greatest discovery in medicine and biology since Watson and Crick characterized DNA and the double helix over 50 years ago. The eCB system modulates and protects the body in all animals throughout the animals kingdom except insects from hydra to humans.

Cannabis and cannabinoids safely and effectively augment this natural homeostatic system bringing vast therapeutic opportunities to medicine"

Dr. Jeffrey Hergenrather is a general practitioner specializing in Cannabis/Cannabinoid medicine since 1999. His medial experience includes 26 years in emergency medicine and private general practice that includes the medical use of Cannabis since 1977. He continues in an active consultation practice in northern California with face-to-face, telephone, and on-line consultations for the use of Cannabis as medicine.

Dr. Hergenrather’s practice, research, and teaching focus on the medicinal uses of Cannabis through a wide range of conditions and age groups - from infants to elder care. He is a founding member and current president of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, a non-profit corporation dedicated to quality patient care, educational programs, and clinical studies. He is a member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) and the International Association for Cannabinoids in Medicine (IACM). Additionally, Dr. Hergenrather works as an expert witness and consultant to local governments in industry in creating safe access to Cannabis medicines.

Justin Sinclair - Herbalist, Pharmacognosist & Educator

M.HerbMed (USyd) BHSc (Nat)(UNE)
ND DBM DRM Dip Nutrition
MNHAA MATMS

Justin has spent decades exploring the diverse field of herbal medicine, both from a scientific and traditional perspective.

Working in education since 2003, Justin has taught a wide variety of subjects including medical sciences such as anatomy, physiology and clinical pathology and has worked as a consultant to industry since 2006.

Key areas of study in his Masters degree with the Faculty of Pharmacy at Sydney University were toxicology, pharmacognosy, analytical phytochemistry, medicinal botany and pharmaceutical technology.

His current clinical interests include pain management, mental health disorders and herb drug interactions.

Over the last decade, his research interests encompass medicinal Cannabis, cannabinoid based pharmacology, novel drug development, full spectrum plant extracts and plant based pharmacology for pain, inflammation and immune modulation.

"Cannabis is first and foremost a herbal medicine...a plant of incredible scope and complexity...one that has been used by our ancestors, from a diverse range of cultures, for millennia.

A plant that can not only alleviate pain and suffering, but restore health and homeostasis. We now have an opportunity to reinstate this therapeutic plant to our pharmacopoeias, dispel the inaccuracies that surround it and use the best of cutting edge science to ensure its quality, safety and efficacy for those that are in genuine need.

Make no mistake...Cannabis is not experiencing a renaissance...it has not been rediscovered...it is simply returning to its rightful place."

Lucy Haslam - Executive Director 'United In Compassion'

“My first experience with medicinal Cannabis was when my husband and I encouraged our 23 year old son to smoke a Cannabis joint.

We were not being irresponsible parents......we were desperate parents who had struggled to watch our son suffer needlessly through years of gruelling chemotherapy.

His battle with cancer had led him to a very dark place where constant nausea and vomiting was stripping away any quality of life he had left.

Medicinal Cannabis was a last resort ........... and it was miraculous!

Dan wanted the same relief for others who were suffering as he did. Together we learned that it was also a life changing medicine for many others including young children with intractable epilepsy and numerous other seriously debilitating diseases and pain disorders.

A new found interest in Cannabis quickly taught me that I was grossly misinformed as was my husband, a police officer of more than 35 years. We had formed opinions based on a historical campaign of scaremongering and propaganda. The level of deception surrounding the harms of Cannabis are unfathomable and a result of human greed and protectionism.

It is now time for humanity to be smart about medicinal Cannabis.

Dan wanted unnecessary human suffering reduced by allowing the legal access to reliable and safe medicinal Cannabis. He wanted medicinal Cannabis patients to be supported by the medical and legal systems. Dan’s dying wish was for the truth about medical Cannabis to be recognised by Australia.

It is my intention to make that happen through the work of United in Compassion. With support from Australians we can make this a reality based on compassion and science rather than fear and dishonesty.”

Dr Ethan Russo MD - USA

"Cannabis, the medicinal plant, has led us to a deeper understanding of the Endocannabinoid System, a key regulatory homeostatic mechanism in human physiology that will lead to better treatments of many diseases."

Ethan Russo, MD, is a board-certified neurologist, psychopharmacology researcher, and Medical Director of PHYTECS, a biotechnology company researching and developing innovative approaches targeting the human endocannabinoid system (ECS).

Previously, from 2003-2014, he served as Senior Medical Advisor and study physician to GW Pharmaceuticals for three Phase III clinical trials of Sativex® for alleviation of cancer pain unresponsive to optimized opioid treatment and studies of Epidiolex® for intractable epilepsy.

He has held faculty appointments in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Montana, in Medicine at the University of Washington, and as visiting professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a Past-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 of numerous books, book chapters and articles on Cannabis, ethnobotany and herbal medicine. His research interests have included correlations of historical uses of Cannabis to modern pharmacological mechanisms, phytopharmaceutical treatment of migraine and chronic pain, and phytocannabinoid/terpenoid/serotonergic/vanilloid interactions.

Mike Baird - Premier of New South Wales

"Every step we take on medical Cannabis,

will be built on the footsteps Dan Haslam left behind”

Speaker Profiles

Dr Bonni Goldstein MD - USA

A native of New Jersey, Dr Bonni Goldstein M.D. received her undergraduate education at Rutgers College. She pursued her medical degree at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey graduating in 1990. Her post-doctoral education included internship and residency at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Goldstein also served as Chief Resident at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. She was a Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics at USC School of Medicine in Los Angeles, Emergency Transport Attending Physician at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and Emergency Medicine Attending Physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

In 2008, Dr. Goldstein developed an interest in the science of medical Cannabis after witnessing its beneficial effects in an ill friend. Since then she has evaluated thousands of patients for use of medical Cannabis with a focused interest in treating pediatric epilepsy, autism and cancer. Dr. Goldstein has given numerous lectures to patient support programs, including the Cancer Support Community, Southern California Prosthetics, and Pediatric Epilepsy groups, as well as Cannabis industry events such as Women Grow and the Emerald Cup.

She recently spoke at the National ‘Patients Out of Time’ Conference in Florida, sharing her results on the use of cannabidiol to treat pediatric epilepsy.

Dr. Goldstein is the owner and Medical Director of Canna-Centers, a medical practice devoted to educating patients about the use of Cannabis for serious and chronic medical conditions, and the Medical Director for Weedmaps.com. She is a Member of the International Association of Cannabis as Medicine, the International Cannabinoid Research Society, and the Society of Cannabis Clinicians.

Robert C. Clarke - USA - Plant Breeder & Agronomist

"A pictorial world view of Cannabis will introduce its great diversity and economic potential. Expanding from this historical background I will summarize the selection, breeding and cultivation of present-day medicinal Cannabis cultivars, and explore potentials for further research"

Rob Clarke has devoted his entire professional career and much of his personal life to studying the Cannabis plant and human-cannabis relationships. He is the author of “The Botany and Ecology of Cannabis”(1977), “Marijuana Botany” (1981) and “HASHISH!” (1998) and co-author of “Hemp Pests and Diseases” (2000) and “Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany” (2013).

Rob has also written several book chapters and numerous peer-reviewed articles, as well as participating in international conferences, and his work is widely known and recognized by a popular audience as well as academic peers.

Rob maintains a lengthy working relationship with HortaPharm BV in the Netherlands specializing in industrial and medicinal Cannabis breeding, and continues to serve as Projects Manager for the International Hemp Association. During the past three decades Rob has traveled extensively documenting traditional Cannabis production and use, increasingly threatened by globalization and cultural prejudice, and has assembled a comprehensive collection of Eurasian hemp textiles. Rob presently heads BioAgronomics Group an international cannabis consultancy specializing in smoothing the transition into a wholly legal and normalized cannabis market.

Bill Turner - Australian Government Department of Health

Head, Office of Drug Control

Assistant Secretary, Regulatory Services Group

Bill trained as a veterinarian and has had a 21 year career in the public service working in a wide range of roles that include veterinary officer in charge on export abattoirs; trade negotiation; diplomatic representation and grant program administration.

From May 2011 until February 2016, he has worked in the Therapeutic Goods Administration, firstly as the head of the Manufacturing Quality Branch and then the Scientific Evaluation Branch.

With the formation of the Office of Drug Control, Bill is now responsible for the regulation of the licit manufacture of narcotic drugs, their import and export and reporting to the International Narcotic Control Board.

The Office of Drug Control is in the process of putting together the enabling regulations that will implement the framework for the cultivation of Cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Dr Ilan Linder MD, Paediatric Neurologist, Israel

Wolfson Medical Centre

'Medicinal Cannabis is a major Quality Of Life changer for pediatric epileptic patients and their families!'

Ilan has treated over 130 pediatric patients with intractable epilepsy over the past two years. He will report in detail on the interesting findings, including the results in treating twenty five of them with vaporized Cannabis. Ilan will also share his experience in treating pediatric movement disorders with medical Cannabis. He will describe the impressive effect Cannabis has on the patients and their families everyday life. Ilan will speak about the Via Dolorosa families encounter until receiving medical Cannabis license and the recent changes made by the Ministry of Health to help overcome bureaucracy.

Biography:

Ilan studied Medicine in Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheba, graduating in 1998. His post-doctoral education included Residency and Internship in pediatrics and later in Pediatric neurology & child development at the Edith Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, Israel, at Professor Tally Lerman-Sagie's Pediatric Neurology Unit.

Currently Ilan head's up the Pediatric Epilepsy clinic. His hospital work consists of consultations and specialised clinics, such as catastrophic epilepsies and the metabolic genetic neurologic clinic. Ilan teachs and supervises medical students and pediatric interns and medical nurses in the field of epilepsy. He also practices pediatrics and pediatric neurology in the community.

Ilan first encountered the field of medical Cannabis during a multi-center trial treating pediatric epileptic patients with Cannabinoid oil extracts and vaporized cannabis. Ilan lead the center's branch.

Ilan recently spoke at the 'Israeli League Against Epilepsy' annual meeting (January 2016), sharing his experience in treating pediatric epileptic patients with vaporized Cannabis. Ilan is am a member of the pediatric neurologists committee in the Israeli Ministry of Health, structuring guidelines for the use of medical Cannabis in pediatric epileptic patients with oil extract and vaporized cannabis.

Ma'ayan Weisberg - Tikun Olam Medicinal Cannabis, Israel

Director of International Public Relations

Ma’ayan is the Director of International Public Relations for Tikun Olam the first producer of medical Cannabis in Israel and one of leading medical Cannabis companies in the world.

She graduated from Tel Aviv University with a BA in Political Science and Communications in 2010.

She went on to establish the patient service and customer support department in Tikun Olam, creating protocols of service and customer support for Tikun Olam patients in addition to heading recruitment and staff training.

She lectures internationally about medical Cannabis and research developed in Tikun Olam. She leads Tikun Olam’s Public Relations and marketing departments.

Inbal Sikorin - Tikun Olam Medicinal Cannabis, Israel

Head Nurse & Director of Tikum Olam Medical Cannabis Treatment Clinic

Inbal graduated at the "Sheba Nursing School" Registered Nurses, finished with honors in 2008.

In 2009 she completed the Palliative Care Course for medical staff, a rich and wide course that changed her world view of Patient Care and accessibility in a nursing homes.

As the Head Nurse of "Hadarim" Nursing Home, from 2009 to 2011 Inbal initiatted a groundbreaking medical Cannabis program for the elderly with 'Tikun Olam' medical Cannabis company in "Hadarim" nursing home.

In 2011 she ran an experimental government national treatment course for the instruction of medical cannabis for patients.
Also in 2011 she established patient guidance and care with Tikun Olam Treatment Clinic.
Treating and counseling thousands of patients in Tikun Olam Clinic.

Tim Harding, Symposium Host

'For at least 5000 years our ancestors used Cannabis used for many things including medicine.

It was only around 80 years ago that our perception of this plant was changed to one of fear, mistrust and moral outrage.

But today, we stand under the weight of mounting medical and scientific evidence, that our bias against Cannabis has been unjustified and unnecessary.

We are only just beginning to discover the secrets behind why humans used this amazing plant successfully for so long. It is through our love and compassion that we can let go of our fears and our prejudice and give hope and dignity to those who are suffering.'

He has fronted several bands and continues to work as a vocalist and musician.

Since Tim left Hi-5 in 2007, he has worked as an actor, public speaker, writer, producer and director, creating solutions for both government and corporate organisations.

More recently, Tim has received national attention because his daughter suffers from intractable epilepsy. After the failure of many conventional treatments in trying to reduce his daughter’s seizures, he is now a passionate advocate of medicinal Cannabis.

Tim Harding is a multi-award winning Australian entertainer best known for his part in the International children’s TV phenomenon, Hi-5.

Screened in over 200 countries, the group toured in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and Ireland. During his time with Hi-5, the group bagged 3 Logie awards, 5 ARIA awards and a Helpman award.

Simon Eckermann - Senior Professor of Health Economics

Topic: Optimising net clinical and economic benefits from medicinal Cannabis: quality controlled domestic production key

Professor Simon Eckermann is Senior Professor of Health Economics at the Australian Health Services Research Institute, Australian Health Services Research Institute and the University of Wollongong.

He was previously Health Economics Professor at the Flinders University Centre for Clinical Change and Health Care Research and Senior Health Economist at the NHMRC Clinical Trial Centre.

His original research and collaborations has established missing links between optimal decision making in research, reimbursement and regulation in practice and is extensively published in the highest impact international health economics and decision making with his original methods research, and clinical and policy journals with his applied research.

Victoria Department of Health & Human Services

Medicinal Cannabis Taskforce

Matthew McCrone - Director

Dr Dayna Swiatek - Senior Policy Officer

Topic: Legalising Medicinal Cannabis in Victoria

Mr Matthew McCrone is the Director of the Medicinal Cannabis and Real-Time Prescription Monitoring Taskforces in Victoria. He is a trained pharmacist and has worked in both the Australian and Victorian Public Service.

Dr Dayna Swiatek is the Senior Policy Officer within the Medicinal Cannabis Taskforce and has a background in medical research. The Taskforce was established in 2015 to implement the Victorian Government's election commitment to legalise medicinal Cannabis in exceptional circumstances.

UIC Medicinal Cannabis Symposium - Sydney 14th & 15th of May 2016

Please support UIC's patient advocacy, education & philanthropic

work, for the re-introduction of medicinal Cannabis

In 2012 led groundbreaking research of medical Cannabis as a treatment for the elderly, as well as creating a standard of treatment, as head of Tikun Olam treatment center, providing protocols of treatment and collecting patient data. Recruited nurses for medical Cannabis treatment clinic: creating Pediatric program and general counseling standards.

2014 - Presented Tikum Olam research and accumulated patient data from the Medical Cannabis Treatment Center in the Israeli National Nurses Seminar.

2015 - Working with a project of rehabilitation for veterans with Tel Hashomer medical institute.

They worked side-by-side on the issue until Robert’s death in 2001. At that point Alice embarked on a nursing career to fulfill her desire to work in hospice. She was a hospice nurse for six years, retiring in 2012. She has returned to the medical Cannabis movement and continues to educate and celebrate the contributions of many brave individuals who courageously fought for medical access to Cannabis. She is the author of Medical Marijuana in America: Memoir of a Pioneer and a frequent contributor to Huffington Post and Cannabis Now Magazine.

Please support UIC's patient advocacy, education & philanthropic

work, for the re-introduction of Medicinal Cannabis