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 Sunil Aggarwal, PhD
Dr. Sunil Aggarwal is a senior medical student at the University of Washington and a trainee in the Medical Scientist Training Program. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Aggarwal completed his PhD in medical geography with a certification in Global Health at the University of Washington School of Medicine in 2008. His doctoral dissertation, “The medical geography of cannabinoid botanicals in Washington State: Access, delivery, and distress” documented the successful use of medical cannabis by 176 chronically and critically ill patients in Washington. His research studies, which took place at sites of medical access and delivery of medical cannabis in rural and urban areas, received federal Certificates of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health. He has published peer-reviewed papers on medical cannabis dosing and cannabinoid medicine, and has served as a designated expert reviewer for the American Medical Association Council on Science and Public Health’s report on medical cannabis science and recently testified at the Iowa Board of Pharmacy hearings on the same topic. He is also the former President of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.
 David Bearman, MD
Dr. Bearman helped found the country’s third free clinic in Seattle, Washington in 1967, directed the Haight Ashbury Drug Treatment Program, and founded the Isla Vista Medical Clinic in 1970. He has worked at all levels of government, including being a Medical Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, Director of Health Services at San Diego State University and Director and Medical Officer of the Sutter County Health Department. In 2001 after retiring as Deputy Director of the Santa Barbara Regional Health Authority (the oldest Medicaid-managed care plan in the country), Dr. Bearman began his private practice of pain management. He has also given expert-witness testimonies in over 350 court cases. Dr. Bearman has authored numerous articles and the book “Demons, Discrimination and Dollars: A Brief History of American Drug Policy.” He wrote the medicinal cannabis section in ABC-CLIO’s online publication, Emerging Issues in the 21st Century World-System. He has been published in the Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Social Issues. The Journal of Medical Economics selected him as one of their "Handpicked Panel of 110 Top Medical Thinkers," and The Wall Street Journal named him Doctor of the Day in 2007.
 Greg Carter, MD
Board-certified in Physical Medicine and a Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Dr. Carter’s clinical practice focuses on the rehabilitation and palliative care of people with severe neuromuscular disease, particularly Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He was the first researcher to document the effectiveness of cannabis in treating the symptoms of ALS, which has now spawned a new field of research. His pre-clinical research involves studying the electrophysiology of animal models of neuromuscular disease. Dr. Carter has over 120 peer-reviewed publications in these areas, and has co-authored the only 2 peer-reviewed, scientifically based and researched articles dealing with medical marijuana dosage. Dr. Carter also serves as a director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association-sponsored clinics at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA and Providence Saint Peter Hospital in Olympia, WA.
 Christopher G. Fichtner, MD
Dr. Fichtner is a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and a former Director of the Illinois Department of Mental Health. Aside from consulting and his clinical practice, he is an advocate for law reform on medical marijuana and has testified in support of Illinois statutory revisions that would permit medically ill patients doctor-recommended access to cannabis. He has a book coming out on the cost effectiveness of the medical use of cannabis.
 Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD
Dr. Hergenrather is a cannabis specialist in private practice in Sebastopol, California. Originally from Southern California, Dr. Hergenrather completed his medical education at the Brown University School of Medicine in 1975. After an internship at the University of South Carolina, he began a 25-year career in emergency medicine and general practice. Since 1997 he has specialized in cannabis consultations, and is a founding member and President of the California Cannabis Research Medical Group (CCRMG). He is also a participating member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) and the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM), at whose conference he spoke on the benefits of cannabis for treating Crohn’s Disease.
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 Arnold Leff, MD
Dr. Leff has had a varied career in both medical and public health administration as Commissioner of Public Health in Cincinnati, Director of Health Services and Public Health Officer in two California counties. Dr. Leff worked as Deputy Associate Director in the President’s Special Action Office on Drug Abuse Prevention under Dr. Jehrome Jaffee in the Nixon White House, and was a litigant in the groundbreaking federal case Conant v. Walters in 2002. He has worked in private medical practices specializing in geriatrics, palliative medicine and HIV medicine, all of which specialties he has been certified in. Currently he is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, where he teaches HIV medicine to Stanford residents and medical students, and is Corrections Medical Director for Santa Cruz County.
 Frank Lucido, MD
A board-certified physician, Dr. Lucido has been practicing Family and General Medicine at his private practice in Berkeley, California since 1979. Since the passage of the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996, he has been performing Medical Cannabis evaluations, and has written and lectured on the subject. Dr. Lucido is well known for testifying as Angel Raich’s doctor in the 2005 groundbreaking case Gonzales v. Raich, and has been extremely active in the medical marijuana movement. He has been Chairman of the Alta Bates Hospital Medical Education Committee, as well as a member of the ethics committee. A strong proponent of high ethical and practice standards, Dr. Lucido co-authored the widely read article “Implementation of the Compassionate Use Act in a Family Medical Practice” in 2004 with Mariavittoria Mangini, PhD. The article was designed to be a blueprint for physicians in making safe and appropriate recommendations for effective medicine. Dr. Lucido is also the founder of MedicalBoardWatch.com and the Association of Independent Medical-Legal Consultants.
 David Ostrow, PhD, MD
Dr. Ostrow received his BS, PhD and MD from the University of Chicago, and has since been a leader in issues of gay men’s health. In 1974, Ostrow co-founded the Howard Brown Health Center, the first and one of the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) health centers. In 1984, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) started the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) – the longest-running HIV/AIDS natural history study – at Dr. Ostrow’s suggestion. His career focused on the behavioral, mental health and substance use aspects of HIV among gay/bisexual men, and has included more than 150 published scientific papers and 12 books. Dr. Ostrow retired from practicing addiction psychiatry in 2004 to focus on researching the links between drug use and HIV infection. He is also the founder of the Medical Marijuana Policy Advocacy Project (MMPAP), aimed at expanding medicinal cannabis research and educating healthcare providers about the protection of medicinal cannabis patients from federal prosecution.
 Christine Paoletti, MD
Dr. Paoletti is a board-certified gynecologist who specializes in understanding women’s body chemistry. Prior to entering medicine, she was a successful research scientist in physiology and endocrinology, the study of hormones. While working on her PhD thesis at UC Berkeley, her research earned her memberships in the Berkeley Honor Society, the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the prestigious Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society of North America. Dr. Paoletti worked as Chief Resident at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, earning several UCLA Special Recognition awards for Outstanding Service and eventually turning down their highly prized fellowship in High Risk Obstetrics in favor of her private practice in Santa Monica, which allows a more personal doctor-patient relationship. She has been active in the community by teaching courses and in-service seminars as an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCLA and a Clinical Attending Physician for the Family Practice program at Santa Monica Hospital. Dr. Paoletti was also recently nominated for the honor of “Diplomate Certification” by the American Board of Hospital Physicians and has appeared on leading medical talk show “The Wellness Hour” with Randy Alvarez.
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