Pubdate: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL) Copyright: 2014 Orlando Sentinel Contact: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325 Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs Author: Scott Powers, Central Florida Political Pulse Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal) RESEARCHER: VETERANS WITH PTSD NEED MED POT STUDY Arizona doctor says veterans need research with medical marijuana and PTSD but study is stymied. Are people waiting for controlled, scientific research to determine whether marijuana has legitimate medical effects for various illnesses, notably post traumatic stress disorder suffered by countless military veterans? So is Dr. Suzanne Sisley, an Phoenix-based clinical psychologist and internist who got FDA approval to conduct such a study in 2011. More than three years later, she still is waiting for federal red tape to end so the government might provide her with research marijuana to run the actual clinical trials, she told students at the University of Central Florida Monday. In Florida, if Amendment 2 is approved by 60 percent of Florida voters in the Nov. 4 election, medical marijuana would be broadly legalized. PTSD, a mental illness caused by a traumatic or life-changing event, could be one of the conditions that doctors could certify for marijuana use. The amendment's language leaves it to doctors' discretion to determine whether a medical condition is "debilitating," and whether marijuana benefits would outweigh risks. Sisley is controversial. She is both a highly-outspoken proponent of PTSD-marijuana research and clinical use of the drug, and a national lightning rod for critics of medical marijuana. In June she was fired from the University of Arizona Department of Psychology, according to the Los Angeles Times. She blamed politics. The university did not elaborate to the LA Times, except to deny politics led to her termination. Sisley said she still has not been given a reason. This week she is touring Florida lecturing on behalf of United For Care, the John Morgan-led organization that put Amendment 2 on the ballot and is campaigning for its passage. Sarah Bascom, spokeswoman for the Amendment 2 opposition group, Vote No On 2, declined to comment on Sisley or the prospect of marijuana use by veterans with PTSD. "Our campaign is not about the medical efficacy of marijuana, it's about this vaguely worded amendment that opens the door to de-facto legalization," Bascom said. Sisley said she has treated numerous veterans with PTSD in her practice and heard more and more confide they were using marijuana to self-medicate, and were satisfied it was working for them. Medical marijuana is legal in Arizona. "It was impossible to ignore the anecdotal reports from these veterans about the benefits they were experiencing from whole-plant marijuana," she said. Since then she's largely built a practice dealing with PTSD sufferers and said through her practice and her growing fame on the topic she has met "thousands" of veterans and others suffering from PTSD who told her they were using marijuana medicinally, particularly to combat symptoms of sleep deprivation, night terrors, flashbacks and hyper-vigilance. So, she said, she proposed launching a controlled study, in which she would work with several groups of veterans with PTSD who have not found help from conventional treatments. In her proposal, they would smoke marijuana of varying strengths in controlled, video-taped conditions. She said got FDA approval, and then got red tape, and still has not been able to acquire federally-provided cannabis for her research. Since she got fired, she also lost her host laboratory for her clinical trials. "The word 'marijuana is so radioactive we can't find a home for this research," Sisley said in a UCF lecture sponsored United For Care, and the university's Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter. To date, little research has been done on marijuana effects on veterans with PTSD. A New Mexico study was convincing enough that Arizona and other states quickly adopted PTSD as an official condition eligible for marijuana she said. But no one, she said, has done the long-term, controlled, blind study she intends. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs follows federal law, which classifies marijuana as a class 1 narcotic -- highly harmful with no redeeming value -- though the VA passed a new regulation earlier this year indicating that veterans in states that have legalized medical marijuana should advise their VA doctor if they have a private doctor certifying them to use it. Research cited on the VA's website mainly looks at how marijuana use has increased among veterans with PTSD, as a symptom, substance abuse. However, the VA's website also cites a study published in March in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, by Marcel O. Bonn-Miller, Kimberly A. Babson and Ryan Vandrey, that evaluated veterans using a California medical marijuana dispensary, who said they used marijuana to help improve sleep, and to better cope. The researchers' reported those subjects with high levels of PTSD were more likely to use cannabis to improve sleep, and for coping reasons more generally, compared with those with low PTSD scores." Sisley said the veterans she is treating tell her they are using as little marijuana as possible, because they want to live normally, not stoned. She said her biggest concern as a psychiatrist is what she labeled the "epidemic" of veterans suicides, and wants to know if marijuana can help ease that situation. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard