A Little About Me…
“Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” This saying could not be more applicable to my life. Born in New York City to immigrant parents in 1971, little did I know this journey called life would take so many twists and turns. My parents came to the United States to live and experience the American Dream. Unfortunately, my parents got divorced when I was young and my mother was forced to raise two young sons on her own. She did this by working three jobs and even so, she could only afford a one bedroom apartment in a rough neighborhood of Baltimore. Times were tough and we struggled quite a bit, but we also realized that we were blessed. My mother always stressed the importance of education to me and my brother. She said that knowledge is power and that no one can take that away from you. Ultimately, my brother and I attended the same undergraduate university and proud to say, that we are both practicing physicians today.
My path to being a physician was not an easy one. After college, still unsure of what I wanted to do when I “grew up”, I decided to complete a master’s degree in biology with a focus in neuroscience. Simultaneously, I was performing research on Alzheimer’s disease at the National Institute on Aging. In my “spare” time, I would volunteer in the emergency department where I would eventually meet my mentor and good friend, Dr. Hoffman. Although he worked in Baltimore, he lived in Los Angeles. We became good friends and he would ask me what my future plans were. We talked about medical school and he asked me if I was interested in attending school in southern California. He made a phone call to a personal friend who was actually the Dean at the medical school. Long story short, I end up moving to Los Angeles in the summer of 1995.
I formally began medical school in 1996. Coincidentally, this was the same year that the Compassionate Use Act was passed allowing patients to use marijuana for medical reasons. Sadly enough, my mentor’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and was experiencing terrible side effects of chemotherapy. The only thing that worked for her was medical marijuana. It was then I decided to closely follow the therapeutic benefits of this plant. During my residency in Baltimore and my gastroenterology fellowship in Houston, I saw the wonders of this natural medicine and how it was changing lives. Even better, during this time, I got married to the woman of my dreams who gave me two beautiful children.
In 2006, after completing my formal training, we moved to Central Pennsylvania. I told myself that once I began my own practice, I would find a way to incorporate cannabis into my treatment algorithm. You are probably thinking, this guy’s life seems charmed. However, life would take another turn. Earlier this year, my wife and I filed for divorce. The Covid 19 pandemic disrupted life as we know it and I was facing unemployment. Some people would have fallen into a deep depression. But I am a fighter and I saw this time as an opportunity to reinvent myself and redefine my purpose in life. Even though I have a solid foundation in medicine, I wanted to learn more about cannabis as medicine. I have recently earned a professional certification in the Science and Medicine of Cannabis and I will be using this knowledge to help my patients and continue to change lives for the better.