Marcus Conant
Dr. Marcus Conant is the Medical Director of the Conant Medical Group, one of the largest private AIDS practices in the United States.  He has practiced medicine in San Francisco for over thirty years, and is a Professor at the University of California Medical Center.  Dr. Conant received his medical degree from Duke University in 1961.  He specialized in dermatology, an area that led him to identify the first cluster of patients with Kaposi's sarcoma, a now well-recognized symptom of AIDS.  He founded a Kaposi's sarcoma clinic in 1981, one of the nation's first specialized AIDS practices. Currently, he and his colleagues provide primary care for over 5,000 HIV infected patients, including approximately 2,000 patients with active AIDS. His clinical experience has demonstrated the efficacy of marijuana in reversing the devastating effects of AIDS Wasting Syndrome, preventing the literal starvation of some of his patients. Dr. Conant was the lead plaintiff in the 2003 case of Walters v. Conant, in which he successfully fought for the rights of doctors to discuss marijuana confidentially with patients as a potential treatment option without risking the revocation of their medical licenses by federal authorities.