Welcome to From Florida, a podcast where you’ll learn how minds are connecting, great ideas are colliding and groundbreaking innovations become a reality because of the University of Florida.

A consortium of nine universities in Florida, led by two professors at UF, is in the early stages of investigating medical marijuana. In this episode, Professor Almut Winterstein describes the consortium, its three major efforts and the opportunities and challenges in understanding how marijuana works as a medical treatment. Produced by Nicci Brown, Brooke Adams and James L. Sullivan. Original music by Daniel Townsend, a doctoral candidate in music composition in the College of the Arts.

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Nicci Brown: Welcome to From Florida where we share stories about the people, research and innovations taking place at the University of Florida. I’m your host, Nicci Brown.

Across the country a patchwork of laws and policies regulate medical and recreational marijuana. Today, we’re focused on medical marijuana and what we know about its safety and effectiveness as a prescribed treatment.

Our guest is Professor Almut Winterstein who co-leads with Robert Cook, a professor in UF’s College of Public Health and Health Professions, the state’s Consortium for Medical Marijuana Outcomes Research.

Professor Winterstein is a Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policies at UF’s College of Pharmacy. She is also the founding director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Safety. Professor Winterstein’s research focuses on drug safety and devising ways to improve medication use.

Welcome, Almut, we are delighted to have you on the show today.

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