Prominent Arizona medical marijuana researcher Sue Sisley has given up on any of the state’s public universities to house the research she’s been doing for years on the effects pot has on post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.
Sisley brought that research to the University of Arizona close to five years ago, and got approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2011 and the Public Health Service last March. She was then laid off from the UA this past summer, and she had been hoping to continue her research at NAU or ASU.
A few months later, NAU’s president passed on the study, so Sisley and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which sponsors the research, turned to ASU—that move, too, without any luck.
Veterans who suffer from PTSD and other advocates for months pleaded the Arizona Board of Regents to keep the study here, but the demand was ignored.
On Friday, MAPS’ Executive Director Rick Doblin sen this message:
It’s now February 20, 2015, about eight months after Sue initiated discussions with ASU about possibly hosting our marijuana/PTSD study. Despite all this time, Sue has not received an offer of an unpaid academic appointment and our questions about how we might interact with the ASU press office have not been addressed.
In order for us to proceed with our study, we are going to go forward with submitting our protocol to an independent IRB and will conduct the study without affiliation with ASU. It’s a shame and intellectually backward that no academic institution in Arizona was willing to work with Dr. Sisley on the first controlled study to ever be conducted on a matter of crucial importance to the many veterans and others suffering from PTSD who live in Arizona and elsewhere.
In December, Sisley and MAPS were awarded $2 million from the Colorado Board of Health for the research.
While approval and funding are in place, the National Institute on Drug Abuse still has to give Sisley her pot. A process she’s said it’s taken too long, since they’ve already overcome all federal hurdles.
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2015.
So, this is how we support the troops? Deny them another possible therapy for PTSD. Way to go DEA and America.
The Tucson Weekly desperately needs a proofreader.
In the title of the article, it should say “Offically.”
When quoting someone, you place quotation marks around the quoted statement or set it off by indenting it so as not to cause confusion and to also give credit to the person(s) you are quoting.
Dr. Sisley wasn’t laid off by the UA and being ignored by other universities because of her study. It’s about how she handled her media responses while at the UA. She scares the administrations with her off-the-cuff PR tactics.
It’s too bad that our politicians would rather spend Arizona tax money to Police for Profit from Arizona citizens rather than to find a way to help our returning veterans. I can’t say I am surprised as Arizona republicans also don’t like kids, the elderly, the mentally ill, women, or those who speak Spanish. Arizona politicians made sure that we rank very close to the bottom in the treatment of mental health problems and our kids have the lowest per pupil expenditures for education of any state in the country. Since the first retail marijuana stores opened on January 1st, 2014, the state of Colorado has benefitted from a decrease in crime rates, a decrease in traffic fatalities, an increase in tax revenue and economic output from retail marijuana sales, an increase in jobs, and their actions have reduced deaths from opiate overdoses there. Colorado’s state economy is reported to be the fastest growing in the nation. Last year they collected close to 70 million dollars in medical and recreational taxes from legal, regulated marijuana. They plan to use this for their schools and to repair their failing infrastructure. In Colorado, not a single zombie has been seen piloting planes out of Denver’s airports nor are they seen driving their buses.
Arizona legislators and prosecutors advocate that we continue a broken and failed system that benefits only the Mexican drug cartels and our Right Wing Nut Jobs who Police for Profit from the citizens of Arizona. This approach to the “marijuana problem” has resulted in cheaper drugs, more potent drugs, and easier access for our children than when we began the War on Drugs but our politicians who invested in Policing for Profit from our citizens continue to get rich off their scheme. Under our current system marijuana became our number one cash crop, surpassing both wheat and corn combined. In 1937 Harry Anslinger (our first drug czar) testified before congress that 100,000 people had used marijuana just before the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act. Today it is estimated that 100,000,000 of our citizens, including our last three presidents have used it. Marijuana prohibition has resulted in a thousandfold increase in use. As taxpayers, we paid between 1 and 1.5 TRILLION dollars to have this done to us! Keep our kids safe! Legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol in Arizona in 2016!
Veterans and their families deserve better treatment alternatives for PTSD than the VHA offers! I am part of a pro bono study, sponsored by Enigami Medical Cannabis, LLC. We are working to sign up Veterans with PTSD in legal medical cannabis states to see if they benefit from treatment with medical cannabis. We do not supply cannabis or medical treatment, but are contributing the online, patent-pending technology to allow participants to track their medications (cannabis, prescription and OTC) and the severity of their PTSD symptoms to help those Veterans and their doctors determine the best medication to treat their PTSD. Please visit http://www.vetptsdstudy.org and spread the word! We think Veterans and the VHA will greatly benefit from this knowledge. Enigami Medical Cannabis, LLC is a subsidiary of Enigami Systems, Inc. (www.enigamisystems.com ). Contact: billgraf@enigamisystems.com
Did you know that the director of Tucson Southern VA distributed a memorandum that stated, “Any patient testing positive for marijuana will be denied pain medication.”? Recently, the DEA put additional pressure on the VA to reduce scripts for opioids and to treat all veterans as potential junkies.
There is no way I can jeopardize my Hydrocodone script, even though it is a low dose, or my Lodine script to participate in a study that Bill Graff offers. I have arthritis in my writing hand (previous broken fingers – all 4 – and early onset R.A.) and my neck and right shoulder require 15 minutes of stretching every morning and night.
I can’t get a script for 3mg for more than 30 days at a time, and end up waiting it the Pharmacy for no less than 1.5 hours for it, since they refuse to mail it because of the DEA.
This is about Vets who need help not about your stupid commits about punicatoin . Oh did I misspell that! Get a life. I really like your concern for the health of the Vets.
Also remember….It’s not only Vets who suffer with PTSD. It’s also a known fact that people who experience sexual abuse as children also suffer PTSD. Look in Phoenix at the monument in Indian School Steel Park…Its says “In honor of all War Veterans and Victims of Sexual Abuse Worldwide.” I hope we will all have this natual and effective substance available to us. I know for a fact that Marijuana helps with sysmtoms! Doesn’t take a case study for me yet I realize we need it in order to have it available legally to not only those who suffer from chronic pain in the body but also to those who suffer from chronic PTSD. It’s very dibilitating!!