Steve served as Forensic Toxicologist at the New York Chief Medical Examiner’s office on 18,000 cases. In 1973, he and his mentor, John Broich, developed Methadone, the first oral liquid dose non-abuseable narcotic.  Stephen set records by gaining both FDA and DEA approvals in under a year, making Methadone the fastest to-market pharmaceutical launch ever. He then launched the modern-era of testing for recreational drugs by creating the first lab detection procedures and implemented them at scale with Mifflin Pharma and Spectrum Labs. After successful exits from both companies, Steve earned his law degree while getting more drugs and medical devices approved worldwide for Unilever. He went on to leverage his extensive medical science and FDA law expertise obtaining FDA approval for over 250 medical devices and a dozen drugs in forty countries. This facilitated 200 start-up companies that collectively employ over 10,000 people. He served as FDA advisor to NIH for many years and in 2016 was a representative to the UNGASS United Nations colloquium to adjust the ‘War on Drugs’ Policy. Founder/CEO of Regulatory Affairs Associates since 2000, his teams provide “invention to approval” regulatory consulting in toxicology, formulation, and clinical trial management. To study cannabis science directly, Steve co-founded Pinnacle Labs in Troy, Michigan as the first and only cannabis-testing laboratory to meet stringent FDA drug standards. He also served as Chairman of both the USA Cannabis Laboratory Standards Setting Committees and the Cannabis Clinical Trials Standards Setting Committees for FOCUS/ISO, the Foundation of Cannabis Unified Standards. 

Founder/CEO of Pure Green, Steve was awarded the first Michigan LARA cannabis-processing license to open his cannabis-centric consumer products company, July 2018 in Inkster, Michigan. Multiple additional cannabis growing licenses have been awarded within 10 months, head count exceeds 50, build out is adding 100,000 sq. ft. indoor cultivation + 40 acres outdoor cultivation in The Thumb region. Multiple patents are actively under review for breakthrough controlled drug dosing and consumer products. Pure Green has run 8 cannabis clinical trials and is currently running 4 additional studies.  Steve has begun the FDA review process for 4 cannabis drugs: for PTSD relief, opioid addiction and pain/anxiety relief for dogs. Always mentoring people, Steve’s TEDMED and TEDX-Detroit videos have encouraged many entrepreneurs.