International Women’s Day: A Conversation with Amanda Daley

As VP of Medical Sales and Education, Amanda Daley manages the team that works to educate healthcare professionals on the science behind medical cannabis. With more than 15 years spent in the traditional pharmaceutical environment, Amanda arrived at Spectrum in 2014 armed with a vast array of knowledge. She is bringing cannabis-based education to healthcare professionals eager to learn more. Amanda’s welcoming and friendly personality makes us proud she is working so hard for patients.

What opened my eyes and mind was doing the research. You hear a lot in the media from certain groups that there is a “void of evidence” around the use of medical cannabis.  What spurred me on to realizing that this is actually not the case was doing the research myself, understanding that there is an endocannabinoid system, and that while yes, the studies are quite limited in their size for a variety of reasons, there are several well-designed, double-blind, even placebo-controlled trials that exist on the medical use of cannabis, notably in pain, and pain was an area I had been working in for the prior decade.

In a snapshot, I would say there are far more open minds on the topic now. So whether that’s more patients looking to turn to this as an option, or healthcare professionals being more open minded about the utility of medical cannabis as a tool in their practice, I would say more minds have become open to the idea. Now, regardless of the therapeutic area, there are almost no medical conferences these days that don’t feature medical cannabis as a topic. It’s something that patients are asking more and more about from their healthcare professionals.

It's ensuring that as we grow - and especially being on the medical side of the business - that we keep the patient in mind. What are we doing from a customer-experience perspective to make this as easy as possible, since medical cannabis a bit of a square peg in a round hole? The same is true for healthcare professionals. As we grow, to keep in mind the value we bring to the patient, and of course, keep a pulse on our culture, and not let us evolve from the spirit of who and what we are and how we started. Being large but still being nimble and being able to take advantage of new opportunities and to execute quickly is important.

Especially in the early days, and I’m speaking not just for Canopy but the cannabis industry, it was very male heavy, and so for the first time in my 15-18 year working career I actually did think about gender in the workplace. One thing I’ve been so fortunate in is that being a woman or not being a woman, I’ve always felt at Canopy that my voice is heard, equally valued, and respected by my peers and senior management. To me, Balance for Better is actually a business necessity and it’s something at CGC that I feel we’re doing quite well. In the last five years Canopy has found more balance - there are now a number of women in leadership roles in the company - and in the last year we’ve also added a female member of the Board of Directors.