Marijuana Researcher Loses Job Over Approved Cannabis For PTSD Study

Lawmakers across the country typically point to one glaring flaw regarding the debate on medical marijuana – a substantial lack of clinical evidence surrounding the benefits of this miracle plant. While many believe that researchers just simply aren’t trying hard enough to push for studies on cannabis, the reality of it all is that they are severely hindered by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in initiating any medical marijuana research regarding a Schedule I substance.
However, a clinical assistant professor at the University Of Arizona’s College Of Medicine has been planning a pioneering study for the last four years that details marijuana’s effect on veterans that are suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While this may seem like an earth-shattering moment in the fight to end the prohibition of cannabis, this situation is made unfortunately newsworthy because this well-known medical marijuana researcher has now lost her job as a result of this study.
Designed to examine both the safety and the efficacy of using marijuana to treat a condition such as PTSD, the primary focus of the study revolved around veterans who suffer from this particular anxiety disorder and have not responded to any traditional or approved treatments. Nearly seventy veterans were supposed to participate in the investigation, which was said to be both randomized and a triple-blind study. Veterans would have been introduced to five different potency levels, some of which would have utilized both placebos, and some with actual doses that would contain up to 12% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
At the forefront of one of the most controversial research happenings at the University of Arizona, researchers found out marijuana’s everlasting stigma the hard way. The university did not agree with the optics of veterans smoking and vaporizing marijuana on their campus – even in the context of a rigorously controlled study that was both FDA-approved and randomized controlled trial – and effectively shut down any possibility of it happening.
Progress on the issue of marijuana research is vital to helping end marijuana prohibition. Although the general public’s opinion on cannabis has shifted, we still live in a world where a majority of studies on marijuana only explore the “harmful” side effects as opposed to its substantial benefits.  Just last year a search of the U.S. National Library of Medicine revealed nearly 2,000 recent papers that were published on marijuana – only 6% of them investigated the benefits.