Healthy KC Networking Forum: Business Impact of Cannabis

Join Healthy KC on January 14 as Dr. Randall Williams, Director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, discusses the impact medical marijuana has had on Missouri since its passing on November 6, 2018. Joining Dr. Williams will be Lewis Koski, Chief Operating Officer of Metrc, who will be discussing the value of a regulated marketplace and how Metrc works with state policymakers and the cannabis industry on compliance which secures the supply chain, public health and the legal marketplace from seed to sales.

Speakers:

Randall W. Williams, MD, FACOG, is an obstetrician and gynecologist who was selected by his peers to serve on the Board of Directors for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). Under his leadership, Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services has accomplished the startup of Constitutional Article XIV, a ballot initiative approved by two thirds of Missouri voters, creating a projected $500 million medical marijuana program in Missouri, as well as the convening of multiple summits on the subjects of rural health and the opioid crisis, for the purpose of integrating local, state, and federal efforts.

Dr. Williams was appointed as the Cabinet Director of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and was subsequently unanimously confirmed by the Missouri Senate on March 9, 2017. He believes a fundamental tenet of effective leadership is to be readily available and accessible. He has visited all of Missouri’s 115 counties to listen and learn from all of Missouri’s citizens.

Lewis Koski is Metrc’s Chief Operating Officer and oversees the Program Management, Provisioning and Support, External Affairs & Business Development and Project Management divisions. Koski previously worked for Freedman and Koski, a cannabis policy consultancy, and prior to that led Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) for five years before being promoted to the Deputy Senior Director of Enforcement, overseeing MED and four other regulatory programs.