Is The Marijuana Study To Help Veterans with PTSD Being Sabotaged by the VA?

By Aaron Kesel

An Arizona study on medical marijuana and its benefits for veterans to combat PTSD is in danger of collapsing because researchers can’t find enough participants for the research, Military Times reported.

The first of its kind study funded by a $2.156 million grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) awarded to MAPS to sponsor the research, seeks to determine whether marijuana can help manage veterans’ PTSD.

The research has received wide-scale backing from the American Legion and other veterans organizations.

The study is being conducted in Arizona and Maryland and is overseen by Dr. Marcel Bonn-Miller, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and Dr. Sue Sisley, a leading researcher on using marijuana to treat PTSD, in Phoenix, AZ. The other half of the subjects will be treated by Dr. Ryan Vandrey at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

Last year, the DEA approved the joint study on marijuana for veterans with PTSD giving formal approval to a controlled clinical trial to study the effectiveness of cannabis and cannabinoid use in patients.

The study then stalled after Dr. Sisley was fired allegedly for her views on medical marijuana, Medical Jane reported.

Sisley is being blamed for the study’s failing for not focusing enough on the study and putting more of her attention on the media, claims VA Press Secretary Curt Cashour.

“If the researcher is truly interested in finding veterans for her study, she should spend more time recruiting candidates and less time writing letters to the media,” Cashour said.

She denies the allegation that it’s her fault citing lack of VA cooperation and criticism from local and federal VA officials Sisley blames them for “not offering more assistance.”

At a White House press briefing in May, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin was asked about easing rules for medical research on cannabis to help broaden treatment options for veterans.

“Right now, federal law does not prevent us at VA to look at that as an option for veterans,” he said.

I believe that everything that could help veterans should be debated by Congress and by medical experts.

If there is compelling evidence that this is helpful, I hope the people take a look at that and come up with the right decision, and then we will implement that.