The University of Arizona fired Assistant Professor Sue Sisley before she could start her research on the possible beneficial effects marijuana can have for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans. Brad Poole, new Medical MJ columnist, covered the unfortunate news in this week’s print edition.
But her firing (her contract is up this fall) would not be a death knell for cannabis research—even hers. Sisley’s study will likely live on, if not at UA then elsewhere through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
MAPS is a California nonprofit organization at the forefront of marijuana research, or at least behind it pushing fervently. MAPS is the sponsoring organization behind Sisley’s PTSD study. Despite her setback, cannabis research is on the rise, said Brad Burge, MAPS communications director.
Al Jazeera America sent The Range an interview that its reporter Jake Ward conducted with Professor Sisley when she received the initial government approval.
“The problem is the word “marijuana” is so politically radioactive that I think that university administration are concerned about how they manage this plus the public relations nightmare of trying to persuade our lawmakers that this is not becoming any kind of drug den here.”
Al Jazeera shared photos of the possible research facility. The building looks like it’s located in an alleyway, and the interior seems like an abandoned storage space. The UA has yet to give an explanation as to why they fired professor Sisley.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2014.
Senator Kimberly Yee runs Arizona and marijuana is her #1 target….she had the professor fired, she even sent the cops to my house in cali for a letter i wrote her….the cops all laughed at her and ive written her everyday since…look out Arizona
This University of Arizona is like the Gambino crime family, they get what they want, they can buy anyone, nobody is safe and they can up the “rent” whenever they want.
And above all, omerta
Let’s start using the word cannabis. It’s the correct word and has much less stigma attached to it. In good news on the subject of cannabis and PTSD, Will Humble just added it as a qualifying condition under the AMMA!
Anything to protect football and basketball at the U of Athletics…
NJYD … my PTSD actually makes a sight picture easier to range since I had to learn to do so under more stress than your lazy, beer-bellied, soiled, couch-potato slug-ass ever experienced. I have my PTSD fairly well-controlled, but if you would like to tell me to take my war injuries and “get lost” in person. I live in Tucson and go to the range twice a week, practice with edged weapons and know offensive and defensive perimeter tactics. Yeah, come here and open your semen-stained mouth! I’ll probably get blocked but that’s the cost of calling an asshole an asshole.
Well Sarge, a couple of things, its called satire or parody “an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect”.
My comment is a parody of what we get from VA, the Armed forces, and now from the U of A.
I say “we” because like you, I am a veteran,but from a long ago forgotten conflict. There can be no doubt of the courage and valor of our vets, but sadly, we often as a country use them for dubious purposes. It took me a long time to realize that to the War Machine I was just a nail, something to be used, and when it gets bent, pull it and throw it away.
You won’t see me at the range, I don’t own any weapons anymore, not even a buck-knife; I know it sounds naive, but war is not the answer, only love can conquer hate.
I was a thug for Wall Street and the Global monied classes but I learned I don’t have to be that, and neither do you.
Speaking of the monied classes, wait until the shit-storm that erupts when it turns out Big Pharma gave money to our Senators and the U to suppress any research using medical marijuana because they can’t make money from a natural plant.
If only one vet was healed from the now doomed research, well worth it.