Episode #183 High Truths on Drugs and Addiction and Dr. Douglas Roehler on CDC Cannabis Unit

CDC has several different units working on different diseases and injury prevention, even one dedicated to cannabis.

To learn more about the CDC’s Cannabis Strategy Unit, I reached out to

Douglas Roehler, PhD, MPH

Health Scientist, Division of Overdose Prevention (DOP)

Douglas Roehler, PhD, MPH, serves as a Health Scientist for the Cannabis Strategy Unit in the Division of Overdose Prevention at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. His work has focused on coordinating and implementing CDC’s cannabis strategic plan, expanding cannabis surveillance and research, and building surveillance and prevention capacity for drug-related overdoses.

Prior to joining the Cannabis Strategy Unit, Dr. Roehler served as a Health Scientist on the Overdose Morbidity Team in the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch in the Division of Overdose Prevention. In this role, he provided technical assistance to funded states to build and enhance their nonfatal overdose surveillance systems.

Previously, Dr. Roehler focused on building and improving road safety surveillance systems in low- and middle-income countries, preventing youth violence, and investigating sudden unexpected infant deaths. He earned his PhD and MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Following his doctoral work, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Rush University Medical Center in the Department of Pediatrics. He has published extensively on cannabis, drug overdoses, traffic safety, youth violence, and child injury prevention in peer-reviewed journals, MMWRs, book chapters, and governmental reports, including serving as the lead author of the 2019 Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-related Risks and Outcomes.