Amanda Reiman, California policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, San Francisco, will discuss “Dispensary-Based Research: an Untapped Source” and how it can be used to advance knowledge of cannabis as a palliative treatment. She also will suggest directions for future dispensary-based research.
Since the first medical marijuana law was passed in 1996, dispensaries have become the epicenter of patient interaction, information sharing and scientific advances in the cultivation, analysis and manufacturing of cannabis and cannabis products.
A 10-year resident of Oakland, Reiman leads the Drug Policy Alliance’s marijuana reform work in California. She joined the alliance last year after working with a medical marijuana dispensary, Berkeley Patients Group, as director of research and patient services.
Reiman’s research centers on the study and evaluation of medical cannabis dispensaries as community health providers, and on the use of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs. She has conducted numerous studies on medical marijuana dispensaries, patients and the use of marijuana as a treatment for addiction. She regularly presents her research at the conferences of the American Public Health Association, American Psychiatric Association, International Cannabinoid Research Society and the Harm Reduction Coalition.
Reiman was the first chairwoman of the Medical Cannabis Commission for the City of Berkeley and has consulted with various cities and states on the development of medical marijuana policy. Currently she is a lecturer in the School of Social Welfare at the UC-Berkeley, where she teaches Drug and Alcohol Policy, Substance Abuse Treatment and Sexuality and Social Work.
Originally from Chicago, Reiman earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of Illinois-Chicago and her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the Jane Addams College of Social Work. She moved to Oakland in 2002 to earn her Ph.D. in social welfare at Berkeley.
For more information, contact Josh Meisel at (707) 826-4446 or Meisel@humboldt.edu.