What is hemp? The congressional definition is anything less than 0.3% dry weight delta-9 THC. This presents a major loop hole, legalizing intoxicating products that are tested for the first time, not on lab rats, but on our children. Dr. Rossheim is an expert on these derived intoxicating cannabis products and shares his research.

Matthew Rossheim, PhD, MPH, CPH, FAAHB is an Associate Professor in the College of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. His work focuses on the marketing of especially high-risk products often used by young people, and he is one of the nation’s leading public health experts on derived intoxicating cannabis products (such as delta-8 THC) and “supersized” alcopops (such as Four Loko). His work, including more than 100 peer-reviewed research manuscripts and scientific presentations, has helped influence the development of laws and regulations from the local- to federal-levels. His research has been cited in reports by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and World Health Organization (WHO), as well as featured by BBC, CNN, CBS, NBC, NPR, Washington Post, and The New York Times. In recognition of his efforts that have profoundly influenced public health policy, he was awarded the 2025 Advocate of the Year award by CADCA.

Teun Voeten (www.teunvoeten.com ) is author of The Devil's Drug.  https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538198612/The-Devil's-Drug-The-Global-Emergence-of-Crystal-Meth

We discuss his new book. We also look at his photography work cover war, homeless and drugs - his captures the similarity in human suffering.

Teun Voeten studied cultural anthropology and philosophy at Leiden university. As a photographer he has been covering conflicts worldwide since 1991. Voeten wrote books on the underground homeless in New York, the civil war in Sierra Leone and wrote a PhD thesis on the drug violence in Mexico. For the city of Antwerp, he researched drug related crime. Early 2025, The Devil’s Drug: The Global Emergence of Crystal Meth will appear. Currently, Voeten is researching the fentanyl crisis on the West Coast of America, from Tijuana to Vancouver.

Cindy Cipriani, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California, develops partnerships and programs to enhance crime prevention and community resilience. She serves on the Executive Leadership Committee and Co-Chairs the Prevention and Education Committee of San Diego’s Substance Use and Overdose Prevention Task Force, a multi-disciplinary coalition that works across sectors to raise awareness and prevent fatal overdoses, and chairs the Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force, which funds community groups that facilitate reentry and prevent gangs and gun crime. Ms. Cipriani was a driving force behind San Diego’s Juvenile Smuggling Prevention team, which was recognized by the Attorney General in 2019 as DOJ’s Outstanding Community Partnership for Public Safety. In addition, she has organized numerous events and efforts to protect houses of worship and address targeted violence and hate incidents, earning ADL’s Sherwood Prize for community engagement work combatting hate.  

Ms. Cipriani obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism at The Ohio State University and held staff positions in the Ohio Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives.  She received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and litigated for nearly a decade at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper) before becoming an Assistant United States Attorney in 1999.  Ms. Cipriani has held several senior management positions, including Deputy Chief of the Civil Division, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, and Senior Management Counsel.

Soccer Team Video:

Our website has info on Project LEAD and the Juvenile Smuggling Program:

We also have information on United Against Hate. The updated calendar should appear on the website soon!

Drugs are smuggled into the US by land and sea and from Southern as well as Norther Border. Sheriff Milstead discusses the Northern Border.

Mike Milstead began his law enforcement career in 1973 with the Sioux Falls Police Department (SFPD).  He served over 24 years on the SFPD, with assignments in all Divisions of that department, rising to the rank of Lieutenant detailed as the Night Shift Commander.  

In 1997, Mike Milstead was sworn in as Sheriff of Minnehaha County.  He has served as Sheriff for over 27 years.  Sheriff Milstead is on the Board of Directors of the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA) and is the Chair of the NSA Drug Enforcement Committee.  He served on the DHS Homeland Security Information Network Advisory Committee (HSIN-AC) and is currently a member of the DHS S&T First Responders Resource Group (FRRG).  Sheriff Milstead is the Chair of the Department of Justice Global Advisory Committee (GAC) and also represents NSA and GAC on the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC).  For the past 25 years, he has served on the Executive Board of Mid-West HIDTA, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Governor’s Senior Advisory Committee for Homeland Security.  He also represents South Dakota Sheriffs on the SD Fusion Center Advisory Board.  

The Minnehaha County Sheriffs Office is a full service law enforcement, public safety and corrections agency that serves the 200,000 people who live in the most populated county in South Dakota. With over 250 full and part-time employees, the Sheriff's Office is responsible for the preservation of peace and the protection of life and property within the jurisdiction. 

The Impact of Schizophrenia Genetic Load and Heavy Cannabis Use on the Risk of Psychotic Disorder in the EU-GEI case control and UK Biobank studies.  This article published in Psychology Magazine Apri 2024 studied 114,698 European patients to determine if genetics was associated with cannabis associated psychotic disorder. Regular users of high potency THC (over 10%) had the highest odds of psychotic disorder independent of schizophrenia genetics. Dr. Marta DiForte explains this research.

Dr Marta Di Forti is a Clinical Reader in Psychosis Research at the Dept of Social, Developmental and Genetic Research, Institute of Psychiatry, and Honorary Consultant Adult Psychiatrist, Lambeth EI Community team, South London and Maudsley NHS foundation Trust. She leads the first Cannabis Clinic for patients with Psychotic disorders in UK. She was recently awarded the Royal College of Psychiatrist Researcher of the year prize.  In 2020 she was granted a MRC Senior Research Fellowship to expand her research in the role of cannabis use in psychosis and its underlying biology. With her team she showed for the first time that use of high potency types of cannabis e.g. "skunk" carries a higher risk of psychosis than use of traditional types and that it affects rates of Psychotic disorders across Europe. Though it still remains unclear who are those cannabis use most at risk. Her future work aims to investigate the interaction between cannabis use and genes predisposing to schizophrenia, and how cannabis changes the epigenome.

Dr. Matthew Fedoruk currently works as the Chief Science Officer leading the Science & Research team at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Dr. Fedoruk is considered an expert in the scientific aspects of anti-doping matters and has reviewed hundreds of results management cases while at USADA and provided credible scientific guidance and opinion to resolve many anti-doping analytical and non-analytical result management cases including the detection of performance-enhancing drugs and the abuse thereof in sport. With more than 10 years of experience in anti-doping and a Ph.D. in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dr. Fedoruk also serves as a standing member of the IPC Anti-Doping Committee, the WADA TDSSA Expert Group Chair and Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) Ad-Hoc Working Group. Dr. Fedoruk also serves as co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC). Before joining USADA, Dr. Fedoruk worked at the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and served with the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Canada. He currently lives in sunny Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is also known as ‘Olympic Town USA’ for being home to the U.S. Olympic Committee, the high-altitude Olympic Training Center, numerous national sport federations and USADA.

Allison Wagner

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is pleased to announce that it has welcomed Allison Wagner, a silver medalist swimmer at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, as its first Director of Athlete and International Relations.

In this role, Wagner will oversee Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American, and Parapan American athlete engagement efforts that will help USADA serve athletes and best meet their needs. Wagner will also work to ensure effective relationships with key international partners and advocate for anti-doping excellence on a global scale.

In addition to her experience as an elite swimmer, Allison brings to this role her recent experience as a research associate at the Sports Equity Lab at Yale University and as a postgraduate student in the Erasmus Mundus Program, a joint master’s degree delivered by an international consortium of six higher education institutions in the European Union.

Wagner is one of six Olympians worldwide to be selected by the International Olympic Committee for this program – a world-first innovation developed by the European Commission as a response to the global challenge to sport integrity. These programs allowed her to lead athlete outreach initiatives and develop expertise in international relations and sport governance, anti-doping policy, abuse and discrimination, athletes’ rights and advocacy, diversity and inclusion, and disability in sport. With this knowledge, she developed concrete and practical solutions related to policy, governance, and communication.

“Allison is passionate about athletes’ rights and standing up for them,” said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart. “As an Olympian and scholar, through engagement with our athletes and international partners, Allison will elevate our mission to serve athletes and ensure that their rights are protected around the world.”

Wagner also has first-hand experience with one of the key reasons that a strong global anti-doping system is so important: She was beaten in major championships by swimmers who were later proven to be users of banned performance-enhancing substances. Despite these challenges, Wagner enjoyed a decorated swimming career, including holding a world record in the 200 I.M. (SCM) for almost 15 years, seven Southeastern Conference titles, 11 All-American honors, recognition as the SEC Female Swimmer of the Year in 1995 and 1996, and the University of Florida’s Most Valuable Swimmer in 1996. She earned the silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Since retirement, Allison has remained involved in sport in various capacities, most recently serving as Climate Survey Advisory Group and SafeSport Athlete Advisory Team Member at the U.S. Center for SafeSport and as Team USA Community Ambassador on the Council on Racial and Social Justice.

Wagner holds a BA in psychology from Naropa University where she finished her degree after swimming for the University of Florida. She joined USADA on May 11, 2021.

Dr. Lora Peppard is the Executive Director of the Center for Advancing Prevention Excellence at the University of Baltimore and the Director of ADAPT, a national training and technical assistance division for substance use prevention for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program out of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. She also serves as the Immediate Past President of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and sits on the Board of Directors for Columbia University’s Nursing Alumnae Association and the Advisory Board for SAMHSA’s Prevention Technology and Transfer Center’s Network Coordinating Office. Dr. Peppard has over 21 years of clinical experience as a psychiatric nurse practitioner serving a variety of populations including adolescents and young adults. She has led multiple federally funded grants and developed system-wide strategies to address the unique substance use and behavioral health needs in communities across the nation. Dr. Peppard has authored several publications and serves as a community, state, national, and international consultant on prevention.  

School based prevention education is one of the pillars to tackling the drug crisis along with treatment and supply. LEAD is a key partner in this effort.

Nick DeMauro is the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence (L.E.A.D.) 

Under Nick’s leadership, L.E.A.D. has grown to be the country’s leading organization teaching first responders and community leaders how to effectively teach anti-drug and anti-bullying to students.   

After earning a degree in Human Services, he joined the New Milford NJ police force, becoming the youngest detective in the agency’s history and launching its juvenile division being awarded two Police Officer of the Year Awards  Sensing the importance of the issue of substance abuse among youth, Mr. DeMauro’s  career path led to his appointment as in international executive in  a drug prevention program (DARE). In New Jersey, over 17 years, he built the largest law enforcement school based statewide charitable organization in the United States. His commitment to positive student outcomes fostered a dedicated vision and goal for law enforcement agencies to provide evidence based, proven effective curricula in the context of comprehensive programming.  In 2015, he was appointed Executive Director and CEO of L.E.A.D. (Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence), A New Jersey based national nonprofit organization designed to facilitate all law enforcement drug and violence prevention efforts throughout the United States and beyond.  Recipient of many leadership awards, his passion includes promoting community-based law enforcement efforts to assist communities foster a safe and healthy environment. Mr. DeMauro’s recent appointment to the Board of Directors of Applied Prevention Science International, Inc. is a prime example of his commitment to good prevention science, superior policy and realistic implementation of evidence-based programming.  Mr. DeMauro and his family reside in Belmar NJ and Naples Fla.

Each Saturday beginning at Noon, L.E.A.D. guy Nick DeMauro, speaks with experts, educators and law enforcement about important issues affecting you and your children. Tune into AM 970 The Answer for topical information and insight from experts waging the battle against drugs and violence in your community.  

What are the effects of cannabis on the cardiovascular system? Dr. Chandy helps clear the haze. The American Heart Association has established the facts.

Dr. Mark Chandy earned his MD and Ph.D. in 2008, at Pennsylvania State University. After completing

medical school, Dr. Chandy trained in Internal Medicine at the University of British Columbia, followed

by a Cardiology fellowship at the University of Toronto. He also completed a fellowship in

Echocardiography and enrolled in the Clinician Scientist Training Program at the University of Toronto.

With a desire to learn stem cell biology, Dr. Chandy trained in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)

disease modeling at Stanford University. Dr. Chandy’s research has been published in Cell and other

high-impact journals. He holds patents for his novel discoveries. As a recently appointed Assistant

Professor at the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Chandy is an independent physician-scientist using

iPSC disease modeling, next-generation sequencing (NGS), proteomics, and gene editing to

understand the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. Dr. Chandy's current research focuses on

understanding the pathophysiology of environmental exposures such as air pollution, e-cigarettes, and

cannabis on cardiovascular disease using human iPSC-derived tissue. The overarching goal of his

research is to 1) investigate the effects of the environment on the cardiovascular system, 2) discover

biomarkers to risk stratify patients, and 3) discover druggable target genes for cardiovascular disease.

The relationship between cannabis and cardiovascular disease: clearing the haze. Nature Reviews. Jan 2025

What does the textile industry and families against fentanyl have in common? They both want to eliminate the De Minimus Loophole that allow foreign goods under $800 to pass into the United States with little scrutiny or taxes. It is one way fentanyl is entering the US.

Kim Glas joined the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) in May 2019 as President and CEO. NCTO represents the broad spectrum of the domestic textile industry from fiber to finished products. She has over 20 years of experience in government policy development and advocacy. Kim also serves as an appointed Commissioner to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. 

Her multi-faceted career includes spearheading manufacturing and trade policy efforts on Capitol Hill, serving as a key leader on behalf of the textile industry, and previously leading a non-profit organization, BlueGreen Alliance, engaged in advancing critical policies to grow quality, U.S. jobs in the clean energy economy.

Kim served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that role, she worked to improve the domestic and international competitiveness of the broad product range of U.S. industries. She also served as the chairman for the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements.

Read about the Close the De Minimis Coalition

Read about How fentanyl traffickers are exploiting a US trade law to kill Americans