An Evidence-Based Approach to Cannabis (with Dr. Kenneth Finn)

This week on Family Policy Matters, host Traci DeVette Griggs welcomes Dr. Kenneth Finn, a pain medicine physician and author of Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach, to discuss a scientific look at the real-life harms that come with the legalization of marijuana. 

More about Dr. Kenneth Finn

Dr. Ken Finn is a pain medicine physician with over 30 years of clinical experience in Colorado Springs, who in 2025 relocated to Arizona to continue his practice in comprehensive pain management. 

He is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation as well as pain medicine, and holds certification in cannabis science through the University of Colorado. He serves as an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Colorado Springs branch. 

Dr. Finn is the former president of the American Board of Pain Medicine and has served on its examination council for more than 25 years. 

He has played an active role in cannabis and drug policy, including service on Colorado’s governor’s task force for Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana, and four years on the state’s medical marijuana scientific advisory council. 

He has been invited to present before the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, testified before the Canadian Senate on marijuana legislation, and addressed the New York State Assembly on cannabis policy. In 2025, he was one of 25 experts selected from over 43,000 applicants to testify before the U.S. Department of Justice on marijuana rescheduling. 

He is also the editor of Cannabis and Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach, a multi-author medical textbook with contributors from four countries, and co-founder of the International Academy on the Science and Impacts of Cannabis, where he continues to work on global drug policy issues, including collaboration with United Nations bodies.