Congratulations to our own Jim Nintzel who is back on the TV-sphere, albeit up north so we're still out on if Maricopa County really counts. However, he did a nice job talking Tucson on Ted Simons' Arizona Horizon show on ASU's PBS station.

The termination of UA assistant professor Sue Sisley came up (minute 14:47) in the "what's happening in Tucson convo," and in response to Nintzel and Simons' comments that critics continue to say the psychiatrist-researcher was dismissed because of her own bias and not political pressure, Sisley communicated with the Weekly that she finds it frustrating that the idea she has a greater agenda or bias has merit.

"This is so deeply frustrating to me because I've never even tried marijuana so I don't have any preconceived notions about it. I've always simply felt that it deserved to be studied rigorously given the mountain of anecdotal evidence from patients, particularly suffering veterans. But I don't have any vested interest: I'm not an owner of a marijuana dispensary, I'm not a doctor who writes marijuana certifications etc. I'm not trying to create research that will guarantee marijuana is viewed in a positive light," Sisley wrote.

"That's never even crossed my mind. My sole focus has been to collect truly objective data on whole planet marijuana for the FDA to evaluate both the good and the bad. And then put all of that rigorous data into the public domain for their scrutiny."

She's a blinded independent investigator which is what makes this different that a scientist that does have an agenda—"there would be no capacity to implement or thwart the data with so many internal and external controls in place. It's an FDA approved study and will be audited constantly throughout" with both FDA monitors and IRB oversight. But I have no agenda except to conduct the most rigorous research possible to shed some light on this subject for our veterans (and data might be generalizable for patients with PTSD of all causes)."

The deadline for the UA to respond to Sisley's appeal is Monday, Aug. 14.