By Phil Riske | Managing Editor | Rose Law Group Reporter
There’s a good chance Arizona State University will accept a spurned proposal to study medical marijuana as a possible benefit to war-torn veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), observers say.
Such a research project was proposed by then-University of Arizona physician Dr. Sue Sisley, but she was fired from her position at the school amid a situation that had turned political when a state senator refused to hold a hearing on the planned research. UA officials denied Sisley’s firing was related to her proposal and the political flareup, saying the dismissal was part of overall changes at the university.
Sisley since has sought a new home for the study, and an ASU official Tuesday confirmed to Rose Law Group Reporter discussions with Sisley are taking place at the university.
At a recent Arizona Board of Regents meeting, veterans appealed to ASU to take on medical marijuana-PTSD research.
“We want to be responsive to the veterans,” said Kevin Gavin, ASU vice president for Media Relations and Strategic Communications.
Gavin said a number of faculty members at ASU are already engaged in research related to PTSD.
“[S]o we are looking into the possibility of expanding that research to include work on the potential benefits and side effects of legal medical marijuana as a PTSD treatment,” he told Rose Law Group Reporter.
Sisley was unavailable for comment, but recently posted a photo of her and ASU President Michael Crow at an event, with the caption Crow “[N]ow he’s become my hero.”
(Sisley, now of Scottsdale, uses a sight dog because she is nearly blind from a severe eye disorder.)
She told Rose Law Group Reporter in a recent interview she has no idea whether medical marijuana could help relieve symptoms of PTSD.
The University of Nevada Las Vegas has courted her to bring the research to its facilities.
The Arizona Department of Health has proposed to make it harder to add new conditions to the list for which doctors can recommend medical marijuana. The regulation would require “clear and convincing evidence,” published in peer-reviewed scientific journals that there is some benefit from the use of marijuana for the specified medical condition.
ASU and Sisley might someday prove just that for PTSD.
