Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
After 17 months, Dr. Suzanne Sisley is about to get the marijuana she needs to start a federally approved clinical study into whether marijuana helps veterans with PTSD.
She proposed this research five years ago, and has been herding bureaucratic turtles ever since. She'll do the study in Arizona even though none of the state's universities wanted to work with her on the fully funded study into one of the hottest topics around.
There is a list of reasons why vets are still waiting for answers.
One is the marijuana monopoly the feds built with your tax money.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is the single source for marijuana for research. NIDA contracts only with the University of Mississippi to grow pot for researchers. The official grower is slow and the quality of the product is low, say critics.
"The whole system is just an abomination," says Sisley, who is lead investigator for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) on the study of marijuana and PTSD. She was awarded funding last year from the Colorado Department of Health.
MAPS' executive director Rick Doblin told a Senate hearing in June that NIDA's "monopoly on the supply of cannabis" caused "arbitrary and lengthy delays."
He also said the DEA "wants to have it both ways, denying that marijuana is a medicine because the FDA has not approved it, while simultaneously blocking privately-funded production" of marijuana for clinical trials.
When Sisley finally receives her marijuana from the feds, it will not be exactly what she requested, she said. The monopoly supplier asked for another growing season to get it right. She doesn't want to wait. She doesn't want the vets to wait.
Pressure is mounting for NIDA to end the monopoly and open up production to other growers.
There was also good news for researchers this summer when President Obama ended the Public Health Service's review of marijuana studies that are not funded by the federal government. Sisley says that redundant review also created delays for her.
The federal government not only makes it hard for privately funded researchers, it also stiffs federal research into marijuana as medicine.
Reporting by USA Today showed that $1.1 billion of the $1.4 billion the National Institutes of Health spent between 2008 and 2014 on marijuana research went to studies looking at abuse and addiction. Only $297 million went to look at potential medical benefits.
Nearly half the states allow marijuana to be used as medicine, yet the federal government stonewalls the kind of scientific scrutiny that's mandated for pharmaceuticals.
Sisley persevered. A few more hoops and she'll be ready to start looking for answers for veterans who want to know if marijuana can help their PTSD.
"I have no idea what it's going to show," she says of the research.
That's a good attitude for a researcher, and a good reason for the feds to stop making medical marijuana research so difficult.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Sue Sisley Doing Her Best For Marijuana And Vets With PTSD
Author: Linda Valdez
Contact: Contact AZ Central
Photo Credit: Rob Schumacher/The Republic
Website: AZ Central
She proposed this research five years ago, and has been herding bureaucratic turtles ever since. She'll do the study in Arizona even though none of the state's universities wanted to work with her on the fully funded study into one of the hottest topics around.
There is a list of reasons why vets are still waiting for answers.
One is the marijuana monopoly the feds built with your tax money.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is the single source for marijuana for research. NIDA contracts only with the University of Mississippi to grow pot for researchers. The official grower is slow and the quality of the product is low, say critics.
"The whole system is just an abomination," says Sisley, who is lead investigator for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) on the study of marijuana and PTSD. She was awarded funding last year from the Colorado Department of Health.
MAPS' executive director Rick Doblin told a Senate hearing in June that NIDA's "monopoly on the supply of cannabis" caused "arbitrary and lengthy delays."
He also said the DEA "wants to have it both ways, denying that marijuana is a medicine because the FDA has not approved it, while simultaneously blocking privately-funded production" of marijuana for clinical trials.
When Sisley finally receives her marijuana from the feds, it will not be exactly what she requested, she said. The monopoly supplier asked for another growing season to get it right. She doesn't want to wait. She doesn't want the vets to wait.
Pressure is mounting for NIDA to end the monopoly and open up production to other growers.
There was also good news for researchers this summer when President Obama ended the Public Health Service's review of marijuana studies that are not funded by the federal government. Sisley says that redundant review also created delays for her.
The federal government not only makes it hard for privately funded researchers, it also stiffs federal research into marijuana as medicine.
Reporting by USA Today showed that $1.1 billion of the $1.4 billion the National Institutes of Health spent between 2008 and 2014 on marijuana research went to studies looking at abuse and addiction. Only $297 million went to look at potential medical benefits.
Nearly half the states allow marijuana to be used as medicine, yet the federal government stonewalls the kind of scientific scrutiny that's mandated for pharmaceuticals.
Sisley persevered. A few more hoops and she'll be ready to start looking for answers for veterans who want to know if marijuana can help their PTSD.
"I have no idea what it's going to show," she says of the research.
That's a good attitude for a researcher, and a good reason for the feds to stop making medical marijuana research so difficult.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Sue Sisley Doing Her Best For Marijuana And Vets With PTSD
Author: Linda Valdez
Contact: Contact AZ Central
Photo Credit: Rob Schumacher/The Republic
Website: AZ Central
