Member Biographies for the Expert Advisory Committee on Information for Physicians on Marihuana for Medical Purposes (EAC-IPMM)

Harold Kalant, MD, PhD, FRS(C)

Dr. Harold Kalant received his MD and PhD from the University of Toronto.  He is Professor Emeritus in Pharmacology, University of Toronto, and Research Director Emeritus, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.  He has published over 400 papers and book chapters, and edited numerous books, including three on cannabis.  He has received many honours for addiction research, and was the first Honorary Fellow of the British Society for the Study of Addiction.  He has served on scientific advisory bodies to WHO, National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and on Drug Abuse (USA), the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, and the Minister of Health of Ontario.  He chaired the WHO working group on health effects of cannabis, and Health Canada`s Expert Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana Research, and was invited to present his views on cannabis to committees of the Canadian Senate and House of Commons.

Paul Daeninck, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Dr. Paul Daeninck works as a medical oncologist and palliative medicine consultant with CancerCare Manitoba and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Palliative Care Program since 1998.  He is the leader of the Pain & Symptom Research Group at CancerCare Manitoba, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba. He holds an MSc from the University of Manitoba, an MD from the University of Calgary and a Royal College Fellowship in Internal Medicine. Dr. Daeninck serves with national organizations, including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, and is on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids (CCIC). He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Canadian Hospice and Palliative Care Association, the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians, the Canadian Pain Society, the International Association for the Study of Pain, and the Multidisciplinary Association for Supportive Care in Cancer.

Boris Gorzalka, PhD

Dr. Boris Gorzalka is Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and has been a faculty member there since 1975. He is a member of the Behavioural Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology divisions of the Department of Psychology and a faculty member in the Neuroscience Program at the University of British Columbia.  He holds an Honours BSc  degree in Psychology from McGill University and a PhD in Psychobiology from the University of California.  He has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and chapters, has more than 250 abstracts resulting from conference presentations and has held 45 research grants.  Currently his research on endocannabinoids, mood and behaviour is supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Jason J. McDougall, PhD

Dr. Jason J. McDougall is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Anaesthesia at Dalhousie University and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology at the University of Calgary. He obtained a BSc (with honours) in physiology and a PhD in joint physiology from Glasgow University, Scotland. He is currently the chair of the Scientific Committee for the Canadian Pain Society and a member of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids. He has published over 70 refereed articles and book chapters on the mechanisms of arthritis and joint pain.

Keith Sharkey, PhD

Dr. Keith Sharkey is Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Deputy Director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary.  Dr. Sharkey also holds the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada Chair in IBD Research and is an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Medical Scientist.  He received his PhD from the University of Liverpool in 1985 and after postdoctoral training in Hungary, the UK and Canada, was appointed in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary in 1990.  Dr. Sharkey's research is focused on understanding the neural control of the gastrointestinal tract in health and inflammatory bowel disease.  His peer-reviewed research articles include the first description of cannabinoid 2 receptors in the brain and many articles on the physiology and pharmacology of the endocannabinoid system.

Tony George, MD, FRCPC, DABPN

Dr. Tony George is Professor of Psychiatry, and Endowed Chair in Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also Clinical Director of the Schizophrenia Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, directing research on addiction co-morbidity in psychiatric disorders, with a focus on schizophrenia. He obtained his M.D. degree from Dalhousie University followed by residency training in psychiatry and a fellowship in Translational Neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine, USA. Dr. George was Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale, and Director of the Program for Research in Smokers with Mental Illness at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications, and is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP); since 2007 he has served as Deputy Editor of the ACNP's official journal Neuropsychopharmacology. He is also Editor of the leading book on pharmacological treatment of nicotine addiction, Medication Treatment for Nicotine Dependence.

Mary Lynch, MD, LMCC, FRCPC

Dr. Mary Lynch is Professor of Anesthesia, Psychiatry and Pharmacology at Dalhousie University and Director of Research at the Pain Management Unit, Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dr. Lynch has 25 years of experience as a clinician assisting patients with chronic pain. She is the author of the self-help manual "Surviving your Personal Injuries Claim and Litigation" and lead editor of "Clinical Pain Management: A Practical Guide". Dr. Lynch chaired the Canadian Pain Society (CPS) Wait Times Task Force and the CPS Task Force on Service Delivery and the Canadian Pain Strategy and is Past President of the CPS. Her research interests include the development of new agents for treating neuropathic pain, integrative care in chronic pain management, development of wait-times benchmarks and service delivery strategies. She is principal investigator of the Canadian Pain Trials Network, and founding director of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids.

Mark Ware, MBBS, MRCP (UK), MSc

Dr. Mark Ware is a family physician and Associate Professor in Family Medicine and Anesthesia at McGill University. He is Director of Clinical Research, Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit, McGill University Health Centre; co-Director of the Quebec Pain Research Network; and Executive Director of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids. He practices pain medicine at the Montreal General Hospital. Dr. Ware has given numerous lectures on pain to health care practitioners and the public and is a McGill Teaching Scholar teaching pain medicine and integrative medicine at McGill. His primary research interests are evaluating the safety and effectiveness of medicines derived from cannabis (cannabinoids), population-based studies of the impact of pain on the population, and complementary therapies in pain and symptom management. His research is funded by the FRSQ, CIHR, and the Alan and Louise Edwards Foundation as well as grants from several pharmaceutical companies.

Pierre Beaulieu, MD, PhD, FRCA

Dr. Pierre Beaulieu is Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology at the University of Montreal. He received his MD at the University of Bordeaux (France), trained in anaesthesiology in London (UK), and received his PhD in pharmacology in Montreal. Until recently, he held a clinical research scholarship from the Quebec Health Research Funding Agency. He is a member of the Quebec Pain Research Network and the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids. His research concentrates on the pharmacology of cannabinoids in the treatment of pain through the modulation of the endocannabinoid system. He organized and participated at a symposium on "Cannabinoids and Pain" at the 13th World Congress on Pain (Montreal, 2010). He is lead editor of the 2010 edition of the International Association for the Study of Pain's textbook the "Pharmacology of Pain".

Cory Toth, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Toth is Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary. He graduated from the University of Regina with Great Distinction in Physics and Mathematics, and obtained his MD degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1997. He completed residency training in Neurology at the University of Saskatchewan in 2002 with FRCPC certification. After completing a three-year fellowship in basic science studying the complications of diabetes upon both the central and peripheral nervous systems, Dr. Toth developed a mouse model of the human diabetic brain and also collaborates with local and international researchers regarding problems in nerve regeneration, neuropathic pain, and motor neuron diseases. He is former director of the Neuropathic Pain Clinic at the University of Calgary. Dr. Toth is funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research as a Clinical Investigator, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and by grants from the CIHR and various pharmaceutical companies.