Our Partners
Patients Out of Time has never worked alone.
From the earliest conferences through the present, our educational programs have relied on the participation and support of physicians, nurses, researchers, educators, sponsors, vendors, and patient leaders who recognized the importance of responsible medical discussion.
The development of medical cannabis education in the United States has required cooperation across professional boundaries. Healthcare providers contributed clinical insight. Researchers shared data and emerging findings. Conference speakers offered disciplined analysis. Sponsors and vendors made it possible to host accredited programs that met professional standards. Patients and advocates provided perspective grounded in lived experience.
Many of these contributions occurred during periods when the regulatory climate was uncertain and professional risk was real. The willingness of individuals and organizations to engage in structured education during those years helped establish continuity where little formal guidance existed.
We acknowledge the speakers who have presented at our conferences.
We recognize the vendors who supported event operations and compliance.
We appreciate the sponsors and supporters who made educational programming possible.
We respect the clinicians and researchers who participated in serious, sometimes difficult conversations about therapeutic responsibility.
The work of medical education is cumulative. It reflects the participation of many contributors over time.
As cannabis enters a more formalized regulatory phase, continued collaboration remains necessary. The integration of cannabinoid therapeutics into healthcare systems requires disciplined discussion and shared professional standards.
To those who have contributed in visible and behind-the-scenes roles, we extend our thanks.
Patients Out of Time reflects the efforts of many.
Our Advisors
Alice O’Leary Randall
Alice O’Leary Randall co-founded the medical cannabis movement in 1976 with her late husband, Robert C. Randall (1948-2001), the first person in the U.S. to legally receive medical cannabis. Robert had glaucoma and accidentally discovered cannabis helped treat the condition. After their arrest in August 1975 for growing four marijuana plants, the couple was shocked to learn that U.S.-sponsored research had discovered the potential of cannabis in treating glaucoma in 1971. This led to their decision to fight the charges against them. Robert pleaded not guilty by reason of medical necessity and won the case.
In a separate legal petition, he secured medical access to federal supplies of cannabis and became the only individual in the country with legal access to cannabis. Overnight, Robert became a celebrity. For more than two decades, Robert and Alice worked tirelessly to reform the prohibitions against cannabis. After Robert’s untimely death in 2001, Alice returned to school and became a nurse working in the emergency room, an oncology office, and hospice.
She retired from nursing in 2012 and re-entered the medical cannabis field. She worked with Mary’s Medicinals of Denver for five years. Most recently, she served as an adjunct faculty member at Pacific College of Health Sciences, teaching the history and policy of medical cannabis. She has authored several books, including Medical Marijuana in America: Memoir of a Pioneer (2014) and Pain Free with CBD (2019). She is a frequent speaker at cannabis conferences and a guest lecturer at several colleges and universities.
In 2020, Alice founded Project 50:Keeper of the Story, with a goal towards preserving the documents and stories of the medical cannabis movement. She resides in Tampa, Florida.
Mara Gordon
Mara Gordon is a globally recognized pioneer in medicinal cannabis and a specialist in developing evidence-based treatment protocols for cancer and diseases of aging, including pain, anxiety, and sleep disorders. She advises patients, clinicians, and companies on the safe integration of cannabinoid therapeutics into medical care and product development.
A former Fortune 500 process engineer, Mara brings analytical rigor to cannabis formulation and clinical application. She is an international keynote speaker and has presented at medical and scientific conferences across North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia, and Israel.
LinkedIn is the only one I really use: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maragordon/
Richard J. Bonnie
Richard J. Bonnie is Harrison Foundation Professor of Medicine and Law Emeritus at the University of Virginia Law Schools of Law and Medicine, having retired from teaching in 2023. He was a founder of UVA’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy and served as
its Director for 45 years.
Bonnie has co-authored leading textbooks on criminal law and public health law and has devoted special attention during his career to public policies relating to mental health and substance abuse. His first book, “The Marijuana Conviction: A History of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States” (1974) was republished in 1999 as a “drug policy classic.”
Bonnie has been involved in public service throughout his career. Among other positions, he has served as associate director of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (1971-73) and secretary of the first National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (1976-80). In 2006, Bonnie chaired a Commission on Mental Health Law Reform at the request of the Chief Justice of Virginia (2006-11) and an Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health Reform for the Virginia General Assembly (2016-19).
Bonnie has also advocated abolition of the death penalty throughout his career. He represented death row inmates in the 1980s and 90s and successfully championed mitigation in cases involving defendants with significant mental disorder. Bonnie was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 1991 and has chaired 15 studies for the National Academies on subjects ranging from elder mistreatment to underage drinking, including the landmark report, “Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation” (2007). Most recently, he has chaired studies on the opioid epidemic in the United States (2017), diversity in adolescent development (2019), and the effects of “active shooter drills” in schools
(2025).
Bonnie has served as an adviser to the American Psychiatric Association since 1979, received the APA’s Isaac Ray Award in 1998 for contributions to forensic psychiatry and “special presidential commendations” in 2003, 2016, and 2025 for service to American psychiatry. He has also served on three MacArthur Foundation research networks, including, most recently, Law and Neuroscience. He has also been an adviser to the American Academy of Neurology’s Committee on Ethics, Law and Humanities for many years.
Bonnie received the University of Virginia’s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award, in 2007.
Greta Gaines
Greta Gaines is a woman set on living life to the fullest and her own terms. Since retiring from professional snowboarding in the late 90’s, Greta has focused on bringing an entrepreneurial spirit to all of her athletic and artistic ventures. After realizing that women were going to take to the sport of snowboarding in a way the world had never seen with its predecessors, skateboard and surfing, Greta founded the Wild Women Snowboard Camps and ran them from 1993-2001. The camps were the first offered for women to learn the amazing sport of snowboarding in a woman centered environment, all over the country.
Greta loved learning how to run a snowboarding business but the real lessons and challenges lay ahead when she started her own record label in 1999 called Big Air Records. Her duties as CEO of Big Air included the distribution and marketing of her 8 albums, touring, merchandise, executive producing her own music, other artists and licensing her songs to film and television. As a television host and producer Greta worked for 20 years in the industry. She got her break co-hosting the big air snowboarding event at the first ever MTV Sports and Music festival in 1997.
She then went on to host and produce “Freeride with Greta Gaines” for 3 years on Oxygen and then” Bass Basics” and segments for the New American Sportsman on ESPN 2. Though Greta’s background is in sports, music and television, her newest passionate pursuit is hemp and cannabis law reform. She has been dubbed as one of America’s top 100 most important activists. She sat on the NORML board of directors for 3 years and co-founded the NORML Women’s Alliance during her board stay between 2011-2014 and remains on their advisory board.
Her heart and efforts have turned towards patients suffering in recent years which has led Greta to become an Ayurvedic Wellness counselor, Reiki Master and clinical herbalist. She is a proud and longtime member of the Patients Out Of Time advisory board. She is an active speaker around the country on such topics as sports and cannabis and the history of hemp. Greta is a self-proclaimed “hempologist” and wants to see hemp and cannabis products made available to everyone who might benefit from such a magical and multi- purpose plant.
Ken Wolski, RN, MPA
Ken retired in 2006 from the State of New Jersey after 25 years of service with the Department of Human Services and the Department of Corrections. Ken worked for the state as an Institutional Attendant, Charge Attendant, Staff Nurse, Head Nurse, Supervisor of Nurses, Quality Assurance Specialist, Quality Assurance Coordinator, and Health Services Manager.
In addition to Ken’s state service, Ken worked for eight years in Acute Care
Facilities as an Intensive Care Unit and Cardiac Care Unit (ICU/CCU) Nurse in
Central Jersey and in Center City Philadelphia. Ken also worked as a Public Health Nurse for the City of Trenton. Ken is currently self-employed and holds a Multistate Compact Registered Nurse (RN) license. Ken volunteers as Chairman of the Cannabis Advisory Committee for the City of Trenton, NJ.
Education:
January 1992 Rutgers University, Newark, Master of Public Administration (MPA)
June 1976 Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, Associate in Applied Science (Nursing/RN)
June 1971 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy), Cum Laude Organizations and Interests:
Executive Director and co-founder of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana—New Jersey, Inc. (CMMNJ), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization and public charity, since 2003.
https://www.cmmnj.org/
Founding Board member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association since 2010.
https://www.cannabisnurses.org/
Spokesman for “Doctors for Cannabis Regulation,” the national physicians’
association for legalization and regulation of cannabis.
https://www.dfcr.org/
Advisory Board Member of “Patients Out of Time,” Charlottesville, Virginia since
2006.
https://medicalcannabis.com/
Chairman, Cannabis Advisory Committee, City of Trenton, NJ, November 2022
Mark Pedersen
For nearly thirty years, Cannabis has sustained me, enabling my travels throughout the country, interviewing physicians, scientists, legislators, but mostly, those personally touched by
Cannabis; the patients who actually treat their chronic and terminal illnesses with this incredible plant.
In producing “full extract Cannabis oil” for children and adults with late-stage cancers, I not only sought to ease their suffering, but I also hoped to encourage the creation of more caregivers, more oil makers and broaden the knowledge base, so that healing would grow exponentially.
I have also worked in Cannabis law reform for a number of years. A staunch advocate for REAL legalization, I have spoken exhaustively on the subject. I have also written full legalization initiatives and advised other states on the “hows” and “whys” of complete deregulation.
REAL legalization will only come once the public at large is brought into the full knowledge of this wonderful medicine.
“Cannabis is nontoxic. Cannabis is food. Cannabis is the single most important medicine of the 21st century.”
Michael Krawitz
A disabled United States Air Force Veteran [Sergeant, 1981 -1986].
Michael Krawitz serves as Executive director of Veterans For Medical
Cannabis Access [VMCA] as well as other board and advisory roles.
Leading VMCA, Michael successfully negotiated the first ever Veterans Affairs medical cannabis policy in 2010 and led the nationwide effort to add Post Traumatic Stress as a qualifying condition to state medical cannabis access laws and has since participated in the World Health Organization [WHO] process in Geneva, Switzerland and then the United Nations process on the
WHO cannabis recommendations leading to the successful vote on 2 December 2020 United Nations - Vienna, Austria removing Cannabis and Cannabis Resin from the Single Convention treaty "most dangerous drug category”
Mark Miller
Mark Miller was founder and Director of the University of Oregon Drug Information Center for fourteen years. To date conducting more than four thousand presentations and in-service trainings, he has authored numerous publications, and was the primary developer of the nationally cited Drug Consumer Safety Education programs. Mark has held instructorships at the University of Oregon, Oregon Division of Continuing Education and the Oregon Board on Police Standards and Training. He has been a Research Associate at the Oregon Health Sciences University Biomedical Information Communication Center (BICC), and helped implement the Oregon ALERT Childhood Immunization Reporting Program.
