About Tim Cermak
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Dr. Cermak grew up in northeastern Ohio, received a BA in philosophy from Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated from Case Western Reserve Medical School in 1972. After two years as a general practitioner in the Indian Health Service, he completed a psychiatry residence at Stanford University Medical Center. He then served three years as medical director of the inpatient drug and alcohol unit at the San Francisco Veterans Hospital before entering private practice of addiction psychiatry in San Francisco and Marin County, California  for the next four decades. He recently retired from clinical practice in order to devote more time to writing.

​Dr. Cermak founded and chaired the Marijuana Task Force for the California Society of Addiction Medicine in 1996. His first book on cannabis – Marijuana: What’s a Parent to Believe?, Hazelden, 2003 – is currently  being updated to a second edition and will be released under the title What Parents Need to Know About Marijuana later in 2022. He chaired the Youth Work Group for then Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy, which contributed to the framework for California’s Prop 64 legalizing the nonmedical use of cannabis by adults in 2016. He has served on the state’s Cannabis Advisory Committee since its inception. From Bud to Brain: A Psychiatrist’s View of Marijuana (Cambridge University Press, 2020) summarized the science of cannabis for health professionals and educators with extensive references to provide the research evidence needed to answer patients’ questions with the latest objective, relevant information.

​He is now excited to bring the science of cannabis to the general public in Marijuana on My Mind: The Science and Mystique of Cannabis. This new book strikes a balance between the scientific facts about cannabis’s interaction with the brain and the subjective experience of cannabis users, including the important personal meanings, often spiritual, attributed to cannabis. By listening with genuine curiosity and respect to peoples’ personal experience, Dr. Cermak bridges the gulf existing between the scientific perspective and what he describes as the Cannabis Culture’s perspective.
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Dr. Cermak's CV
CVCURRICULUM VITA
1-10-2022
Timmen L. Cermak, M.D.
Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Certificate of Added Qualification in Addiction Psychiatry
Postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology 

California Medical License: G-031376
DEA License: AC8251439

Employment
1984 – 2021 (April 1), Retired
Private practice of psychiatry and addiction psychiatry, San Francisco and Marin County, California

1997- 2006
Medical Director and Psychiatric Consultant, Henry Ohlhoff Programs, San Francisco and Marin County, CA
Ohlhoff runs 30 day residential, day treatment, 6 month halfway house and a full range of outpatient chemical dependence services.

1997- 2001
Consultant to MyDailyRecovery.com, a recovery-oriented website

1984 – 1990
Private practice of psychiatry and clinical director of Genesis Psychotherapy and Training Center.
The Genesis program specialized in treating spouses and children of chemical dependents and providing consultation and training in the field of co-dependency and chemical dependency.

1982 – 1984
San Francisco Veterans Administration Hospital Department of Psychiatry, Assistant Chief and Acting Chief of the Alcohol Inpatient Unit
Supervisor: Nick Kanas, M.D., Assistant Chief of Psychiatry
Duties: Administrator, clinical and medical director of a 20 bed, 28-day chemical alcohol treatment unit. Training was provided for psychology interns, medical students, psychiatry residents and post-doctoral fellows.

1981 – 1982
Private practice of psychiatry, Menlo Park, CA

1975 – 1976
Maricopa County Health Department, Phoenix, Arizona
Duties: General practice, rotating through field clinics responsible for pediatric care, family planning and postnatal care, general practice and nursing home care.

1973 – 1975
U.S. Indian Health Service, Phoenix Indian Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ
Duties: General Medical Officer, assigned to the outpatient clinic at the Salt River Indian Reservation, in the emergency room of the Phoenix Indian Medical Center and the hospital pediatric clinic.

Education:
1963 – 1967 Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
Degree: BA in Philosophy
Phi Beta Kappa, junior year

1967 – 1968 Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Pre-med (non-degree status)

1968 – 1972 Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Degree: M.D.

1972 – 1973 University of Colorado/Benjamin Rose, Denver, CO
Internship, Rotating 0

1977 – 1980 Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA
Psychiatry Residency and Postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology, Department of Psychiatry

1978 – 1981 Stanford University Alcohol Clinic, Stanford, CA
Chemical Dependency Specialization
Supervisor: Stephanie Brown, PhD

1980 – 1981 Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA
Post-doctoral Research Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry
Supervisor: Karl H. Pribram, M.D.

Certifications:
Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, January, 1985
Certificate of Added Qualification in Addiction Psychiatry, 1993
Certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, 1986

Affiliations
National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA)
Founding board member, Past President (1983-86)
Past Chairman of the Board of Directors (1986-88)
Advisory Board (1988 – Present)
American Society of Addiction Medicine (1982-Present)
Chairperson of Family and Generational Issues Committee (1991 – 1993)
Medical Marijuana Task Force (2010 – 2012)
California Society of Addiction Medicine (1982 – Present)
Executive Council (1992 -1995; 2005 – Present)
Chairperson, Committee on the Scope of the Field of Addiction Medicine
(1992 – 1996)
Chairperson, 1995 State of the Art Conference Planning Committee
Chairperson, Task Force on Medical Marijuana (1996 – 2001)
Editor, CSAM Newsletter (2006 – 2009)
President-Elect (October, 2007-9)
President (October, 2009-11)
Marijuana Policy Task Force Chair (October 2015 – Present)
American Academy of Psychiatrists in Alcohol and Addictions (1988 – 2002)
The Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems (TMI)
Board Member (1996 – 2001)
Vice-President (1999 – 2001)
Northern California Diversion Evaluation Committee I (1998-2006)
Governor’s Prevention Advisory Council (GPAC) Subcommittee on SBIRT (Screening, Brief
Intervention, Referral and Treatment), Co-Chair (October, 2007 – 2010)
Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy and Law, Co-Chair of Youth, Education and
Prevention Working Group (2013 to present)
Bureau of Cannabis Control Cannabis Advisory Committee (October 4, 2017 to present)

Editorial Positions
American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Editorial Board (1991- Present)
American Society of Addiction Medicine Syllabus
Family and Generational Section Editor with Timothy Rivinus, M.D. (1992)
Editor, California Society of Addiction Medicine Newsletter (2006 – 2009)

Publications
Books

A Primer on Adult Children of Alcoholics, Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 1985; Second Edition, 1989.

Diagnosing and Treating Co-dependence, Johnson Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1986.

A Time To Heal, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles (Distributed by St. Martin’s Press, New York), 1988.

Adult Children of Alcoholics in Treatment, Cermak, Brown and Beletsis, Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 1989.

Evaluating and Treating Adult Children of Alcoholics (two-volume set), Johnson Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1990 & 1991.

A Time To Heal Workbook, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles, 1994.

Marijuana: What’s a Parent to Believe? Hazelden, Center City, Minnesota, 2003 (second endition in preparation, due for release late 2022 under the title What Parents Need To Know About Marijuana)

From Bud to Brain: A Psychiatrist’s Vies of Marijuana, Cambridge University Press, May 2020

Marijuana on My Mind: The Science and Mystique of Cannabis, Cambridge University Press, due to be released April 20, 2022

Selected Articles and Chapters

“Interactional Group Therapy with the Adult Children of Alcoholics,” International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, July, 1982. (Reprinted in Adult Children of Alcoholics in Treatment, Brown, Beletsis and Cermak, Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 1989.

“The Children of Alcoholics,” NEWS, California Society for the Treatment of Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies, Vol. 10, No.4, December, 1983.
“Children of Alcoholics and the Case for a New Diagnostic Category of Co-Dependency,” Alcohol Health and Research World, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 38-42, Summer, 1984. (Reprinted in Data, Johnson Institute and as a chapter in Growing in the Shadow, edited by Robert Ackerman, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, Florida, 1986).

“Diagnostic Criteria for Co-dependency,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Vol.18, No.1, Jan./Mar., 1986, pp.15-20.

“Therapeutic Considerations with Adult Children of Alcoholics,” Cermak and Rosenfeld, Advances in Alcohol and Substance Use, Vol.6, No. 4, Summer 1987, pp. 17-32.

“Al-Anon and Recovery,” a chapter in Recent Developments in Alcoholism: Emerging Issues in Treatment (Vol. VII), Edited by Marc Galanter, M.D., Plenum Publishing Corporation, New York, 1989.

“The Relationship Between Co-dependence and Narcissism,” a chapter in Children of Chemically Dependent Parents: Academic, Clinical & Public Policy Perspectives, edited by Timothy Rivinus, M.D. Brunner/Mazel, Inc., New York, 1991.

“Co-Addiction As A Disease,” Psychiatric Annals, 21:5, May 1991, pp. 1-5.

“Offspring of Alcoholics and Other Addicts,” a chapter by Timmen Cermak and Walter Beckman in Handbook on Drug Abuse and Prevention by Robert Coombs and Douglas Ziedonis, Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuster Education Group, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

“Co-Dependence,” in The Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol, edited by Jerome H. Jaffe, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York.

“A Psychiatric Perspective on Co-dependence” American Society of Addiction Medicine Syllabus, edited by Norman Miller.

“Cannabis and Medical Marijuana,” CSAM NEWS, Newsletter of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, Spring, 1997, Vol. 24, No. 1.

“Youth and Cannabis,” CSAM NEWS, Newsletter of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, Summer, 1999

“A Neurophysiological Theory For Alcohol-Induced Amnesia (Blackouts),” CSAM NEWS, Newsletter of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, Fall, 2001

“Medical Marijuana,” in Beyond Medical Marijuana: Toward Cannabinoid-Based Medicines, Edited by Stanford and Avoy, Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System, 2009.

“Adolescent Substance Abuse: A Blueprint for California,” San Francisco Medicine,” Journal of the San Francisco Medical Society, Vol. 83, No. 5, June, 2010

“Marijuana Facts: The Risk of Addiction,” San Francisco Medicine,” Journal of the San Francisco Medical Society, Vol. 83, No. 5, June, 2010

“Prevention of Youthful Marijuana Use,” Cermak and Banys, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Volume 48, No. 1, 2016

“Clinical Approach to the Heavy Cannabis User in the Age of Medical Marijuana,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Volume 48, No. 1, 2016

“Marijuana Legalization in California: Rational Implementation of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA),” Banys and Cermak, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Volume 48, No. 1, 2016

“Cannabis in 2017: Preparations and Modes of Delivery,” Mark Elliott and Timmen L. Cermak, The Carlat Report: Child Psychiatry, Volume 8, Number 3
May 2017

“Adolescent Marijuana Use and Clinical Practice”, Interview, The Carlat Report: Child Psychiatry, Volume 8, Number 3
May 2017

Audio
“A Time To Heal,” Audio Renaissance Tapes, Inc., Los Angeles, California, (Distributed by St. Martin’s Press, New York), 1989.
Video

“Co-dependence–The Joy of Recovery,” Johnson Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1988.

“The Mirror of A Child,” for children of alcoholics, Johnson Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1989.

“Alcohol, Children & The Family,” Hospital Satellite Network, Los Angeles, California (Distributed by AIMS Media, Van Nuys, California, 1988).
​
“Adult Children of Alcoholics,” Hospital Satellite Network, Los Angeles, California (Distributed by AIMS Media Van Nuys, California, 1988).