Meet the scientific advisors, medical experts, and team behind the most trusted resource for cannabis.
Whether you’re wondering if CBD will be helpful for your medical condition or if it’s legal to sell THC in a specific state, you need the information you read to be trustworthy. But finding information online is always challenging, and it’s much more so when the topic is as controversial as cannabis. With an ever-changing legal landscape and continually evolving scientific knowledge, getting answers to crucial questions for your health or the future of your business can feel like walking through a minefield of misinformation.
That is why we do what we do. Our aim is to be that resource you can depend on.
Learn more about our editorial process.
Our Medical and Legal Expert Board
Our medical and legal expert board is here to ensure that every piece of content on CBD Oracle meets the highest standards for accuracy and reliability. As well as providing direct fact-checking, our expert contributors offer crucial advice when it comes to understanding the needs of patients and assist us in conducting independent research.
Medical Review Panel
Our medical review panel is composed of medical doctors, scientists, cannabis coaches and therapists from research institutions, professional organizations and private practice. These are not just a random selection of MDs: they have years of experience working with cannabis, understand the needs of patients and stay up-to-date with the research developments in the field. They care about helping people heal with cannabis, and they review and inform all of our content relating to science and medicine.
Abraham Benavides, MD
Cannabis Coach, Scientific Advisor
Dr. Abraham Benavides is an international cannabis science advisor, health coach, and full-tuition merit scholar of the GW School of Medicine.
Eloise Theisen, NP
Adult Geriatric Nurse Practitioner, Cannabis Therapy Expert
Eloise Theisen is a board-certified adult geriatric nurse practitioner with more than 20 years of experience providing palliative care primarily to cancer, dementia, and chronic pain patients.
Tanja Bagar, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemist
Tanja Bagar, PhD, is the Chairman of the Expert Council of the ICANNA International Institute for Cannabinoids. She lectures in microbiology and biochemistry at the Faculty Alma Mater Europaea and is a lecturer for medical staff and patients at several international education programs on cannabinoids.
Legal Review Panel
Our legal review panel ensures that any legal content on CBD Oracle is accurate and up-to-date. As with our medical review panel, our content isn’t reviewed by a random attorney: our legal experts have extensive experience with cannabis and hemp law specifically, through both private practice and professional organizations. They not only check our content for accuracy, but also guide our research on and interpretation of the often-nuanced laws surrounding hemp and cannabis.
Neil Willner
Cannabis Law Expert
Neil M. Willner is an experienced cannabis attorney at Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld LLC and co-chair of the firm’s Cannabis Group. He focuses his practice on the cannabis industry and provides counsel to hemp and marijuana companies across all parts of the supply chain on regulatory and compliance issues.
Expert Contributors
Our panels are only part of the story. We cover a wide range of topics, so we aim to present a diverse range of expert viewpoints to both help us tackle niche areas and to give a broader, balanced perspective on more familiar ones. While many different experts contribute comments for one or two posts, there are some regular contributors whose insights continually support and inform the work we do at CBD Oracle.
Erik Paulson, PhD
Lab Manager
Erik Paulson is a lab manager at Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs. He has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.
Rod Kight
Founder, Kight on Cannabis
Rod is a cannabis business law attorney who represents legal cannabis businesses throughout the world and is the editor and chief writer of the Kight On Cannabis law blog. Rod is the author of “Cannabis Business Law-What You Need to Know”, published by Aspatore Books. He has served on the advisory board for the American Journal of Endocannabinoid Medicine. Rod also created the “Source Rule”, which is widely regarded as a primary legal foundation for the contemporary hemp market in cannabinoids and other cannabis materials.
Shawn Hauser
Partner, Vicente LLP
With more than a decade of experience in cannabis law and policy, Shawn is a go-to source for businesses, industry groups, governments, and reporters seeking opinions, analysis, and guidance. She has presented on cannabis law and policy to many local, federal, and international agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and UK Parliament.
Meet Our Team
Our editorial team is composed of passionate editors, researchers, journalists, budtenders, and others who are committed to bringing you trusted information about cannabis and natural medicine.
Houman Shahi
Editorial Director
Houman founded CBD Oracle in 2020 and currently serves as the Editorial Director, leading the editorial vision of the organization. He has over a decade of experience in leading editorial roles in various publications that have reached over 30 million readers globally.
Lee Johnson
Senior Editor
Lee Johnson is the senior editor at CBD Oracle, and has been covering science, vaping and cannabis for over 10 years. He has a MS in Theoretical Physics from Uppsala University.
Mell Green
Product Editor
Mell is a cannabis connoisseur who has been published in nearly 50 online publications surrounding cannabis, including Cannabis Industry Association, Analytical Cannabis, Terpenes and Testing Magazine, Plant People, Byrdie, and many others over the last 10 years. As a product editor at CBD Oracle, Mell has tested over 2,000 hemp and cannabis products since 2020.
Ali Mans Cornwell
Editor
Alisdair is an experienced researcher who has been writing extensively about hemp and cannabis since 2018.
Analiese Trimber
Contributing Writer
Analiese is a recipe developer and cannabis connoisseur. Her writing and recipes have been featured on the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed Food, Brit + Co, and more.
Brianna Wheeler
Contributing Writer
Brianna is an award-winning essayist and illustrator in Portland, Oregon. She has been a cannabis advocate for over 20 years and is a frequent contributor to Weedmaps, and Portland’s Pulitzer Prize winning newsweekly, the Willamette Week, where she writes the Potlander cannabis column.
Yolanda Machado
Contributing Writer
Yolanda is an award-winning movie critic and cannabis product expert. Her work has been featured in many publications such as the New York Times, LA Times, The Wrap, GQ, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar and more.
Zola Costa
Contributing Writer
Zola is an experienced cannabis connoisseur, writer, and photographer living in Ontario, Canada. She has experience working in both management and budtending within the industry and has tested hundreds of products between the recreational and medical markets.
Nicole Coulon
Contributing Writer
Nicole has worked at many of LA’s top cannabis dispensaries where she got to research and test the most popular cannabis-infused products on the market and educate consumers about the various products available to them.
Editorial photographers: Shaunna Kaufmann, Elsa Olofsson