Amanda Reiman is the Founder of Personal Plants, a DIY earth medicine kit and e-learning platform. She is also the VP of Community Development for Flow Cannabis Company, a distributor and manufacturer in Mendocino County, CA. Dr. Reiman is on the Board of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, Cannabis Doing Good, the California Cannabis Tourism Association, and The Initiative, the first incubator/accelerator for women-owned cannabis businesses.
After receiving her PhD from UC Berkeley, Dr. Reiman was the Director of Research and Patient Services at Berkeley Patients Group, one of the oldest dispensaries in the country, and the Manager of Marijuana Law and Policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, a national non-profit that was engaged in the drafting and campaigns of legalization initiatives across the country and abroad. She also taught courses on substance abuse treatment and drug policy at UC Berkeley for 10 years.
Dr. Reiman is an internationally recognized cannabis expert and public health researcher. Dubbed “The Brain” by Elle.com, she is a leader the field of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs and has presented her research on cannabis dispensaries and the use of cannabis as a substitute for opiates all over the world. Also an expert in cannabis policy on the local, national and international level, Dr. Reiman was the first Chairwoman of the Berkeley Medical Cannabis Commission and also sat on the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission. She currently resides in Mendocino County, California.
What social justice and/or criminal justice reforms do you want the US to make around its drug policy, particularly around cannabis?
If I were creating the perfect set of policies for cannabis in the US, I would roll us back to the early 1900’s, where cannabis was a medicinal plant used across cultures, as it is today, but people were not penalized for doing so, and the cultivation of cannabis was done under the sun, by farmers. Once cannabis and its use was connected to fear (use by Mexican immigrants), the lunacy of prohibition began. We can move legalization and cannabis policy far, but we cannot undo that underlying fear, we can only hope to outgrow it with time.
Social Media:
Facebook.com/amanda.reiman.5
Twitter: @AmandaReiman
Instagram: @AmandaOaklandish
