Left: Andrew Freedman works with government, research institutions, communities, and private businesses to get cannabis legalization right. Having served as Colorado’s first director of marijuana coordination, he has received national recognition for his leadership and was named one of the 30 most influential health influencers of the last 30 years.

Right: Lewis Koski is among a small group of government executives who have been intimately involved in the development and implementation of marijuana policy from the infancy of medical marijuana through the realization of legalization. As former director of Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division, he played a pivotal role building the world’s first agency to implement medical and retail marijuana.

Over the past decades, North America has been torn apart by diametrically opposed and deeply held beliefs about cannabis. Evaluating the success of legalization efforts has been almost as divisive as legalization itself. Short-term successes and shortcomings do not definitively answer the “Should we legalize?” question. How you legalize matters? Getting legalization right matters. Join keynote speakers Andrew Freedman and Lewis Koski as they provide a tempered view of what we currently know about the effects of legalization, lessons learned, and how we can impact policy for the better from here on out.