Training Description:
Medical cannabis was legalized in Florida in 2016. Traditionally, addictions professionals were trained to be attuned to the dangers and drawbacks of potentially addictive substances such as cannabis, yet we also sometimes work with clients suffering from debilitating biomedical conditions who might benefit from medical marijuana. With so much contradictory information about the risks, benefits, and efficacy of medical cannabis, how can busy frontline healthcare providers sift through fact and fiction to develop an evidence-based approach to addressing the use of medical cannabis in a variety of treatment settings? This training was designed to provide counselors with an overview of research on the conditions that medical cannabis can effectively treat, the potential risks of medical cannabis, a summary of medical cannabis laws in Florida, and a decision model encouraging collaboration between addiction medicine specialists and addictions counselors and psychotherapists that can be used to address medical cannabis use in a variety of behavioral healthcare settings.
Learning Objectives:
Objective 1: Identify disorders that may be treated by medical marijuana.
Objective 2: Summarize laws regulating medical cannabis in Florida.
Objective 3: Identify potential adverse health effects and drawbacks of medical cannabis use.
Objective 4: Implement a decision tree applying best practices for how to address medicinal cannabis use by clients in behavioral healthcare settings.
Presenter:
Aaron Norton, PhD, LMHC, LMFT, MAC, MCAP, CRC
Norton Consulting Services, LLC
Dr. Aaron Norton is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with certifications in addictions, alcohol and drug counseling, rehabilitation counseling, clinical mental health counseling, trauma treatment, forensic mental health evaluation, forensic behavioral analysis, and forensic psychometry. He serves as Executive Director of the National Board of Forensic Evaluators, Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of South Dept. of Mental Health Law & Policy, Southern Regional Director, Ethics Committee Liaison, and International Counseling Task Force Chair for the American Mental Health Counselors Association, and Chair of the Government Relations Committee for the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association. Dr. Norton has experience infusing artificial intelligence (AI) in both his clinical practice and his instruction as a professor of behavioral healthcare, served on the expert panel that created the standards and written exam for the Florida Certification Board’s Certified Telehealth Practitioner (CTP) credential, and has been published in several journals and professional magazines. He has 20 years of experience as a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor.
