Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jul 2014
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2014 Associated Press
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Astrid Galvan, Associated Press
Page: A8

DOCTOR REMOVED FROM POT PROJECT

TUCSON, ARIZ. (AP) - Veterans, medical marijuana activists and 
scientists welcomed the first federally approved research into pot as 
a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

But their hopes for the research were dashed when the University of 
Arizona fired researcher Suzanne Sisley, who undertook the study 
after clearing four years of bureaucratic hurdles.

Sisley, a medical doctor who also taught and researched at the 
university, sought the project after years of treating military vets 
who told her that marijuana was the only drug that helped them 
improve symptoms of the disorder that affects up to 20 percent of 
those who served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The university said it let Sisley go June 27. In a letter to Sisley, 
released Friday to The Associated Press, the university says she was 
fired because funding for part of the work she did with the medical 
school was running out and because the telemedicine program she 
worked with is shifting direction.

Chris Sigurdson, a spokesman for the university, said the school is 
committed to continuing the project and is looking to replace Sisley 
with another researcher who can raise more money.

Sisley says she lost the job because state legislators who opposed 
her work had put pressure on the university - a claim the school denies.

Her study would have measured the effects of five different potencies 
of smoked or vaporized marijuana in treating symptoms of PTSD in 50 veterans.

"Basically ours would have been the first and only controlled study 
looking at marijuana effects on PTSD. There are very few randomized 
control studies," Sisley said.

Sisley says the battle is not over. She is asking the university to 
reinstate her. If that fails, she intends to try to get another 
university to take on the project.

Ricardo Pereyda of Tucson, an Army veteran of the Iraq War, said the 
end of the study is a tremendous disservice to military vets.

Pereyda said his symptoms of PTSD - anxiety, insomnia, depression - 
eased when he smoked marijuana.

"It allowed me to get some much-needed rest and sleep because I was 
suffering from insomnia," Pereyda said. "It reduced my anxiety 
attacks. It just allowed me to regain something that I had lost 
overseas during my deployment and allowed me to reconnect with those 
around me."

Getting federal approval to research marijuana is a laborious and 
long process. While the federal government approves and funds many 
studies that look into the negative effects of cannabis, it has been 
reluctant to approve those that consider its positive ones.

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance under the federal 
government's Controlled Substance Act, meaning it is too high-risk 
for abuse and has no accepted medical applications.
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