Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jun 2013
Source: Arizona Daily Wildcat (AZ Edu)
Copyright: 2013 Arizona Daily Wildcat
Contact:  http://wildcat.arizona.edu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/725
Author: Stephanie Casanova

APPROVAL NEEDED FOR MARIJUANA RESEARCH ON CAMPUS

Despite a recent amendment in Arizona law, a UA researcher must 
continue to wait for federal approval before conducting medical 
marijuana research.

Dr. Sue Sisley, assistant director of interprofessional education and 
assistant professor of internal medicine and psychiatry, was approved 
by the Food and Drug Administration two years ago to study the effect 
of cannabis on veterans who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.

However, the FDA's approval is one of many regulations Sisley will 
need to get through in order to move forward with the study.

Although Arizona voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 
2010, an Arizona law was passed in 2012 that prohibited the 
possession and use of medical marijuana on college campuses.

After realizing the law didn't make exceptions for marijuana 
research, UA administration urged the state to adopt a statute 
allowing such research on college campuses.

Last month, Senate Bill 1443 was signed as an exception to the law, 
allowing medical marijuana research to be conducted on college 
campuses. The research must also be approved by federal 
administrations including the National Institute on Drug Abuse and 
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as well as the university's 
Institutional Review Board.

Sisley is still waiting on approval from NIDA and the DEA before she 
can begin her study.

The drug must be purchased from NIDA after the study is approved 
based on regulations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services. The DHHS considers "factors including the scientific 
quality of the proposed study, the quality of the organization's 
peer-review process and the objectives of the proposed research," 
according to an announcement the department released in 1999.

Sisley's study would include 50 veterans, who would be separated into 
a vaporizing group and a smoking group to study the different effects 
of each form of administration. An alcohol-based plant not containing 
THC -- the main pyschoactive element in the cannabis plant -- would 
be used as placebo. Sisley said she has heard many accounts of 
marijuana helping PTSD patients control their symptoms.

Medical marijuana research in Arizona is important because it answers 
questions people may have about what constitutes medical marijuana 
and what kinds of symptoms it can cure, Sisley said. A college campus 
is one of the safest and most secure environments to conduct such 
research while abiding by federal law and maintaining legitimate 
studies, she added.

"To put up barricades for research, like saying that it can't be done 
at the university is really unhelpful to the progress of science," 
Sisley said. "If you can't do a marijuana study on campus, there 
really isn't anywhere else for you to go aE& even though the U of A 
took the lead in trying to move the bill forward, the truth is that 
this is going to benefit all the universities."

Joseph Hatcher, a 32-year-old combat veteran, was 24 years old when 
he was deployed to Iraq. In 2006, the Department of Veterans Affairs 
diagnosed Hatcher with PTSD.

Hatcher was prescribed about six medications including 
anti-depressants, muscle relaxants and mood stabilizers to treat his 
PTSD, lower back pain and insomnia. After seeing negative results 
from the medication, he decided to try marijuana instead.

"I spent a lot of years doing what the VA told me to and destroying 
my body and losing weight and I lost my family," Hatcher said. "When 
I finally stabilized, it was cannabis that allowed me to focus and 
function without pain."

PTSD is one of many health issues Sisley wants to study in regards to 
medical marijuana's effects. Other intended studies include driving 
conditions after using marijuana as well as marijuana's effects on 
chronic pain, severe appetite suppression due to the effects of 
chemotherapy, HIV, cancer and neurological impairments.

"We're really eager to start answering questions that the community 
has [about medical marijuana]," Sisley said.

Leslie Tolbert, senior vice president for research at the UA, said 
it's important for researchers to have the proper tools and a 
controlled environment to study drugs that could potentially help 
alleviate chronic pain and other disorders.

"We're pleased that they [the state] were willing to do this," 
Tolbert said. "All of us as researchers want to have the maximum 
number of tools available to us so that we can find answers to the 
questions we're asking."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom