About Dr. Leigh

Leigh Vinocur, MD, MS, is the Chief Medical Officer and founder of Ananda Medical Practice and Consulting. She is a board-certified emergency physician, with one of the first master’s degrees in the country in medical cannabis science and therapeutics from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. With almost 5.5 million legal medical cannabis users in various state programs, cannabis use affects almost every industry and medical practice in the US. As a medical cannabis expert physician advisor and consultant, she is focused on medical cannabis science and therapeutic education and training programs for both patients, clinicians and any organization including the cannabis industry, itself. She is a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians and Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, and Patients for Safe Access.

She is a media-savvy, experienced, national medical contributor who has made regular appearances on many national media outlets, such as the Today Show, Cable News Network (CNN), Headline News (HLN), the Fox News Channel (FNC) and Fox Business News (FBN). She can translate technical and scientific information into consumer-friendly terms. Her adjunct medical broadcasting career dovetails into her passion for educating physicians, industry, and the public on medical cannabis science and therapeutics. She is a regular contributor to the Hearst publication GreenState.com, where she has an “Ask Dr. Leigh” column answering their readers cannabis related questions. She co-hosts a cannabis education podcast for clinicians on RadioMD, called Cannabis Grand Rounds.

She is also a national spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and frequently speaks on topics for the Society of Cannabis Clinicians (SCC). She has won numerous awards for her contributions in healthcare from organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence and the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Her passion is educating not only patients and healthcare industry professionals, but all cannabis industry stakeholders, as well as any organization creating the most up-to-date evidence-based scientific programs on medical cannabis science and therapeutics. Because in today’s world she feels there needs to be some basic level of cannabis science competency.

Dr. Vinocur recognizes the huge void in understanding the basics of medical cannabis science and therapeutics within the healthcare community. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, only 9% of medical schools teach anything about medical cannabis, while over 60% of medical students cite that they are unprepared to deal with medical cannabis patients. Additionally, within the cannabis industry there is a dearth of scientific understanding and knowledge in cannabis science. It is such a fast-growing industry, bringing in individuals from other economic sectors, these professionals whether they will be working in the c-suite, or the dispensaries, all need to have a basic foundational understanding and medical cannabis science competency. Even in the adult use-recreational market, customers come into purchase cannabis for medical reasons, and a recent study has shown that over 54% of these customers are relying on dispensary staff to ask questions about medical cannabis use and how to select a cannabis product, while only about 3% of those patients have asked for input from their medical professionals.

She also understands as more states continue to legalize adult-use and medical cannabis, companies and their human resource departments are unprepared to deal with their employees legally using both cannabis and medical cannabis.

She will tailor these educational and training programs specifically for your organization’s needs with both live and/or virtual courses.