PHOTO: (left to right): Lt. Marco Gonzalez, Gordon Center; Dr. Ivette Motola, Gordon Center; Vincent Torres, UHealth/Miller Medical School Emergency Management, and South Florida Health Coalition; Security Officer Tyreke Spann, UM Public Safety; Al Brotons, Gordon Center; Michael Ung, Gordon Center; and Jose Pereda, Gordon Center

February 26, 2021 – On Thursday, February 25, Security Officer Tyreke Spann was recognized for his quick action in saving the life of another while on duty. Representatives from the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education, UM Emergency Management and Campus Safety, and the South Florida Health Coalition were on hand to present Spann with the “2021 Life Saving Award.” 

 
When Spann completed the STOP THE BLEED® course at the Gordon Center in November, he had no idea that he would soon use those skills weeks later to save someone’s life. While on duty, Spann came across an injured man lying on the ground at the UM/Jackson Medical Campus. Upon inspection, Spann realized the man had been shot several times. Spann called for backup and immediately executed what he had learned from the STOP THE BLEED® training: apply pressure to the injuries, pack wounds to control bleeding, and correctly apply tourniquets. The victim was then taken quickly to Ryder Trauma Center and is now slowly recovering from his injuries. 
 
“This is why we do what we do,” said Angel “Al” Brotons, EMT-P, Associate Director for Operations and Instructor Development at the Gordon Center. “Thanks to Officer Spann’s quick thinking and actions, the injured man is alive today. This is the Gordon Center’s mission in action – saving lives through simulation, innovation, and education. Seeing the positive outcome of this situation is affirmation of that.” 
 
 
 
 
 
About the Gordon Center:
As the world’s leading center for healthcare simulation education and research, the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education mission is to improve the training of health professionals, thereby enhancing patient outcomes and saving lives. Founded over 45 years ago, the Gordon Center – a University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Center of Excellence – develops, implements, and disseminates curricula, training programs and simulation technologies for educators, multi-professional clinical providers, and first responders worldwide.
 


One Plant, a medical marijuana treatment center (MMTC), has a simple focus—to provide the best possible quality product to its customers.

That’s part of the reason why it has a Medical Director. Matt Ferenc, D.O., FACOEP, or Dr. Matt as people fondly call him, joined the One Plant team in September 2019.
 
Dr. Matt’s interest in cannabis was the result of dealing with different kinds of medical issues for the first 13 years of his medical career. Chronic diseases and dependence on medicines especially narcotics were dependent on the pharmaceutical industry. Medications such as opiates and benzodiazepines were tragically over prescribed leading to severe dependence issues and deadly medication overdoses. He noticed that states such as California and Colorado started using cannabis for many medical conditions. Pain control and anxiety issues were by far the most popular medical conditions where cannabis helped tremendously. Brady Cobb, is the CEO of the company, and Dr. Matt explains that they have been talking about the health benefits of cannabis for many years, even before it was legal in the state of Florida.
 
“Cannabis really interested me because we had many patients coming in with deadly overdoses from prescribed pain and anxiety medications.” says Dr. Matt, who is also one of the lead ER physicians at a level one trauma center in South Florida. “I started looking at cannabis as a potential treatment for pain and anxiety control here in Florida, even before it was legal.”
 
This led to him writing a book called Dr. Matt’s Plan: Living Longer and Healthier. In that book, he added a chapter about cannabis and how it could potentially help people with many symptoms, including preventing overdoses from opiates and benzo’s.
 
“That’s what we were dealing with at that point of time," he says. “We witnessed tragic and deadly overdoses on a daily basis from medications that were prescribed by physicians. I thought maybe one day the State of Florida would make cannabis legal to try to get away from all these overdoses happening.”
 
Once One Plant launched, Cobb asked Dr. Matt to join as the Medical Director, because of his knowledge of the industry.
 
“I decided to stay away from the recommending side of it. I was more interested in the administrative duties and the back end of developing quality medicine for Florida patients,” adds Dr. Matt. “I enjoy the administrative duties that came along with this position which also allows me to interact with recommending physicians and their patients. It’s amazing interacting with like-minded physicians and helping patients with quality medications grown by One Plant.”
 
Dr. Matt stresses that every MMTC in the state of Florida is required to have a Medical Director.
 
“The Office of Medical Marijuana (OMMU) left medical marijuana treatment centers to designate the roles and duties of a Medical Director on their own,” he explains. “Our duties revolve around the thought that we must maintain growing quality medicine for patients. We oversee the whole grow process to make sure only high quality medicines make it into patients hands. All of One Plant’s medicines are third party tested and generate certificates of analysis (COA). This COA documents that there are no molds, no pesticides, heavy metals, and describe which cannabinoids and terpenes are in the medicine.”
 
Dr. Matt is currently conducting a questionnaire study with cannabis patients in Florida. This study further demonstrates the need for more natural therapies such as cannabis for many conditions.
 
“We’re trying to pinpoint what patients are looking for,” he says. “From my data so far, we’re learning that 85% of the patients who are taking cannabis are doing it instead of opiates for pain control. In addition, over 90% of patients are using cannabis instead of benzodiazepines or sleeping aids for sleep and anxiety. People are leaning away from these pharmaceuticals and toward cannabis, which is safer for patients.”
 
Finally, Dr. Matt says that he’s excited that the health industry is finally opening up to a natural medicine that exists in nature.
 
“It’s throughout the world,” he says. “Seven years after writing about it in my book, cannabis is becoming more publicly available. We now have other modalities for treating certain diseases, especially pain and anxiety. I think it’s exciting to be in the State of Florida right now when these doors are opening up.”


A discussion with cannabis advocate Bruce Linton

For Bruce Linton, founder and former chief executive officer of one the largest cannabis companies in the world, Canopy Growth Corp, Florida has emerged as an interesting market for the cannabis industry in the East Coast because of its head start.
 
“Things are definitely accelerating there,” he says. “What’s interesting to me is that it’s become an East Coast phenomenon. On the West Coast, they’ve pretty much had cannabis everywhere all the time for about 30 to 40 years. Five years ago, you couldn’t find cannabis anywhere on the East Coast. Today, in Florida especially, not only do they have it, but you can ask questions such as: Where did you get it? What strains do you have? Access is the hallmark of success which Florida has right now.”
 
After leaving Canopy Growth, Linton started Collective Growth in 2020. He founded it as an SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company. This essentially means it’s a listing on the NASDAQ and Linton, who currently serves as the chairman and CEO, has $150 million in the bank which he needs to figure where to invest in.
 
Hemp has his attention at the moment.
 
“We started with a focus on putting together a combination of assets that currently use hemp,” he says.
 
However, after looking at about 170 companies, Linton found it was going to be more difficult and take a little longer than he originally thought. So he did a transaction with a driverless car company that created a technology that fits in driverless cars.
 
“You may wonder how does hemp and this technology relate? Well, they don’t really—but they kind of do,” he says. “Their technology is the incumbent technology in BMW. BMW’s new cars should come out in the upcoming year. But the BMW i7 electric car, currently made in Germany, utilizes industrial hemp based bio-composites. 21% of the car is made of hemp.”
 
By lowering the weight of the BMW i7, engineers have increased the distance that the electric car can travel. Hemp fibers can be used as a reinforcement in bio-composites. It can form a superior composite that can hold any shape and a resulting material that is 2-3 times stronger than steel.
 
“We did a very smart transaction with a very high tech company, and I hope to be back on the field with another run at a way to turn hemp into the most disruptive agricultural crop in America over the next 24 months,” says Linton. “And by disruptive, I mean to protein, pharma, and industrial applications.”
 
Linton believes that hemp can become a viable source of revenue for farmers in the United States. If the plant is able to be cultivated and processed correctly, every part of it can be used. This opens up more revenue streams.
 
Besides the potential of hemp, there are a few other things that excite Linton about the cannabis industry.
 
“Globally, governments are increasingly not ignoring cannabis, which means that scientists, entrepreneurs, general voters, and consumers all have access to it and they all want to do different things,” he says. “Like scientists, we talk about cannabis, but cannabis is a plant. And inside that plant there are at least a hundred components, but we usually only talk about CBD and THC. That means there are 98 things in there that we don’t know enough about. What excites me is trying to have the opportunity for everybody to unlock the potential of all of the components of the plant.”
 
For Linton, that means a lifetime of work for many people because the human body’s endocannabinoid system interacts with those components.
 
“But we don’t know which ones go where and in what quantities to cause what,” he says. “And so access leads to science, science leads to outcome. The number of outcomes that could be derived are exponential compared to the ones that we know of already.”
 
Finally, it’s the consumers themselves that excite Linton. In places like Florida, he says that there are more discerning, knowledgeable, and informed consumers.
 
“As a result, over the next two or three years, things will get more interesting because people are not just asking if they have any cannabis, but in what format, what function, what dosage,” he says. “There’s now a solid base of access and you will soon see a massive acceleration and really sophisticated consumption of knowledge and format.”


My new and educated cannabis use has changed so many aspects of my life: one of those aspects was finding my joy through community.

Talking to my tribe today on more than one occasion within that day, I found myself having conversations around the word JOY. It was serendipitous that this 3-letter word was on the minds of those around me, because I was truly feeling it and actively manifesting it every day. Feeling joy can be tantamount to our self care and also self identity especially for the community I identify with (queer, black, kinky and polyamorous) To be a minority, within a minority, within a minority (yeah imagine how I feel…ha!) the small victories that affirm and validate who you are can be the single most exuberant experience of your life. But alas that doesn’t happen every day, so how do we cultivate, multiply and share our JOY?
 
In my sisterhood of the cannabis community, I see and am inspired everyday to not give up on myself. No matter how difficult no matter how rough we always find a way through, heck that is stoner culture too, isn’t it?! I have seen through some incredible black women, queer women, latinx women and also kinky women. How resilient we are and how and where that joy resides. The whole history of cannabis is about resilience and joy. The freedom that it grants you the open mindedness and the ease of connection and the thought of hey I know everything is going to be alright. Isn’t that what joy is?
 
As with everything it starts with US! How can we embrace our natural gifts, talents and skills if we are always looking down at others and their talents that are different than ours? When will I realize that my black girl magic is equal and in proportion to my sister’s joy? They are not only one and the same but they are contingent on each other. I always loved the phrase “Your vibe attracts your tribe” this is truth and I experience it every day! When I make space to rejoice and foster my tribe’s joy my joy in turn is doubled. Now THAT is the real MAGIC of my sisters in cannabis and all girls.
 


Delray Medical Center announces the appointment of its new governing board members for the 2021 calendar year.

• Deputy Police Chief Richard D. Morris of the West Palm Beach Police Department. Deputy Police Chief Morris has over 40 years of law enforcement leadership experience including his current role, as well as serving as an instructor for the Department of Homeland Security, DOJ and Department of Treasury.
 
• Dr. Jeffrey H. Newman is the Medical Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Delray Medical Center. Dr. Newman specializes in adult cardiac and thoracic surgery, mitral valve repair, minimally, invasive aortic and mitral valve surgery as well as aortic aneurysm repair.
 
• Shelly Petrolia, Mayor of the City of Delray Beach. Mayor Petrolia has been involved with the City of Delray Beach since 2013 when she served as a City Commissioner.
 
• Dr. Timothy R. Williams is the Medical Director of the South Florida Proton Therapy Institute. He has practiced as a board-certified radiation oncologist in South Florida since 1989. In addition to operating a full-time clinical practice, Dr. Williams is a past president of the American Society of Radiation Oncology and the Florida Radiological Society along with many other prestigious boards and committees.
 
These new members join Chair, Larry Edelson, Lori Vinikoor, Dr. Louis G. Tumminia, and Dr. Christos P. Kokinakos, to complete the Governing Board of Delray Medical Center.