2025 Conference Program

08:00 - 08:30

Registration

08.30 - 09:00

Indigenous welcome to country

Opening by Senator The Hon Fiona Nash, Assistant Minister for Health

09:00 - 09:45

Professor Yvonne Cadet-James (Head, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Centre, Office of the Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor, James Cook University)

09:45 - 10:00

Professor Jan Copeland: Current Cannabis challenges

Director National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre

10:00 - 10:15

Data blitz

• Development of serious game, 'Pure Rush', to educate young people about drug use: Natasha Nair, Bill Reda, Lexine Stapinski, Nicola Newton, Daniel Rodriguez, Cath Chapman, Maree Teeson.
• Metabolic studies of synthetic cannabinoids Pb-22 and 5F-PB-22 by Cunninhamella elegans: Shimpei Watanabe, Unnikrishnan Kuzhiumparambil, Zofia Winiarski, Shanlin Fu.
• Trends and geographical presentation of cannabis leaf and related products seized in NSW over 5 years (from mid-2010 to mid-2015): Pragma Gaur

10:15 - 10:45

MORNING TEA

10:45 - 11:25

Marijuana: from the street to the clinic

Professor Marilyn Huestis

11:25 - 12:05

Translational research of cannabidiol (CBD) in neuropsychiatry

Professor Jose Crippa

12:05 - 12:45

Medicinal marijuana in the US

Professor Kevin Sabet

12:45 - 13:30

LUNCH 

13:30 - 15:00

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities

• Yvonne Cadet-James: What has culture got to do with cannabis? 
• Bernadette Rogerson: Development of a culturally sensitive pictorial Cannabis Withdrawal Scale aligned with DSM-5 in a low literacy Australian Indigenous Population
• Maurice Shipp

Cannabis Interventions

• Lesley Boyd: Early Intervention for Cannabis related Offences - providing treatment options rather than court
• Stephen Blyth: Going online to reach people seeking help: early PotHelp progress
• Lisa Gibson, Jan Copeland: Pilot testing the first evidence-based smartphone app for self-management of cannabis use
• Izabella Pokorski: Very Brief Interventions for cannabis use

15:00 - 15:30

 AFTERNOON TEA

15:30 - 17:00

Cannabinoids and driving

• Catherine Milburn: Steer Lear
• Peter Gates: Survey of cannabis and driving in Australia
• Olaf Drummer: Cannabis and driving
• Marilyn Huestis: Effects of cannabis with and without low dose alcohol on driving

18:30 - 21:30

Cocktail reception

08:30 - 08:55

Registration

08.55 - 09:00

Welcome

Chair Professor Michael Farrell

09:00 - 09:40

Studies of acute cannabinoid administration in humans: what’s the story with THC versus CBD?

Professor Nadia Solowij

09:40 - 10:20

Repairing and preventing cannabis related brain harms: a dream or reality? 

Professor Murat Yucel

10:20 - 11:00

Cannabis and schizophrenia: private, clinical and public perspectives

Dr Matthew Large

11:00 - 11:30

MORNING TEA

11:30 - 13:00

Cannabis and brain function

Professor Nadia Solowij, Professor Murat Yucel

Cannabis prevention

• Valentina Lorenzetti, Albert Batalla, Janna Cousijn: Cannabis use disorders and neuroanatomical alterations - where is the evidence?
• Valentina Lorenzetti, Silvia Alonso-Lana, George Youssef, Chao Suo, Janna Cousijn, Michael Takagi, Nadia Solowij, Murat Yucel: Abnormal brain function in adolescent cannabis users - a systematic review of evidence
• Samantha Broyd, Hendrika van Hell, Lisa-Marie Greenwood, Chao Suo, Murat Yucel, Nadia Solowij: Acute effects of THC and CBD alone and in combination on default-mode connectivity - a functional resting-state MRI study
• Lisa-Marie Greenwood, Hendrika van Hell, Samantha Broyd, Rodney Croft, Nadia Solowij: Cannabidiol attenuates the effect of THC on EEG brain oscillations during rest

• Delyse Hutchinson: Adolescent substance use and educational attainment: An integrative data analysis comparing cannabis and alcohol from three Australian cohorts
• Kirsty Scholes-Balog: developmental trajectories of cannabis use among Australian adolescents - childhood predictors and young adult outcomes.
• Katrina Champion, Nicola Newton, Lexine Staoinski, Tim Slade, Emma Barrett, Maree Teeson: Internet-based prevention for alcohol and cannabis use: 12-month outcomes from a cluster randomised controlled trial
• Amanda McDonald: Cannabis Prevention and Awareness: findings of an Australian survey on mass media campaigns

13:00 - 14:00

LUNCH

14:00 - 15:30

Prohibition has failed with illicit drugs: accepting the challenge of examining other approaches

Emeritus Professor David Pennington

15:30 - 16:00

'My cannabis journey'

Mr Bob Hopkins

16:00 - 16:40

Cannabis 2.0 (US policy and commercialisation)

Professor Kevin Sabet

16:40 - 17:00

Discussion and closing