June 11, 2026 at 1 PM MDT
Understanding the links between cannabis use and mental illness: Implications for treatment
Dr. George is Professor of Psychiatry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto (UofT), and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). He received his B.Sc. (1988) and M.D. (1992) degrees from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and then did his psychiatry residency (1992-96) and a fellowship in translational neuroscience (1996-98) at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. He joined the Yale Psychiatry faculty in 1998, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004. In 2006, he moved to UofT and CAMH as the inaugural Chair in Addiction Psychiatry, which he held until 2012. He has held several leadership positions, including as Chief of Schizophrenia (2008-16) and Addictions (2016-19) Divisions and Medical Director of the Complex Mental Illness Program (2012-16) at CAMH, and Co-Director of the Brain and Therapeutics Division in the UofT Department of Psychiatry (2006-2018).
Dr. George’s research focuses on understanding and treating substance use disorders in people with serious mental illness. He has published over 375 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and other reports. His work has been funded by NIDA and CIHR since 1999. From 2021-2023, he served as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA). He wrote the chapter on Nicotine and Tobacco in Cecil Textbook of Medicine in the last five editions (2011, 2015, 2019, 2023 and 2027). He is Co-Principal Editor for the psychiatric neuroscience journal, Neuropsychopharmacology (NPP).