On April 3, 2012, Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law a bill prohibiting the use of medical marijuana on the campuses of schools, colleges, and universities in the state. The new law is an example of the current backlash against medical marijuana that is taking place at both the state and federal level across the United States. While the bill was intended to regulate state medical marijuana patients, some administrators at the University of Arizona have suggested that the bill could also apply to federally regulated medical marijuana research. This could prevent MAPS from being able to conduct our FDA-approved study of marijuana for PTSD on the campus of the University of Arizona in Phoenix, where Principal Investigator Sue Sisley, M.D., is planning to conduct the study.
In the study protocol, we propose to explore the safety and effectiveness of smoked and/or vaporized marijuana in 50 U.S. veterans with chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD. We are now seeking clarification on the extent of the new law, which is on shaky legal ground if used to ban federally regulated research. Meanwhile NIDA, which has a monopoly on the supply of marijuana for use in FDA-regulated research, continues to block the study by refusing to sell us the marijuana required for the study.