Dr. Suzanne A. Sisley

Dr. Sue Sisley MD is the president and principal investigator of Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI), as well as an internal medicine physician practicing in Phoenix, Arizona. Over her twenty years in practice, Dr. Sue treated many veterans who began to confide that cannabis was an effective treatment for many of their ailments, particularly PTSD. With an epidemic of veteran suicide, Dr. Sue knew she needed to look harder at what cannabis and other psychoactive plants could offer, as well as mastering how to navigate the barriers to research on criminalized drugs.

Working with the nonprofit research organization MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), Dr. Sue fought for 10 years to complete a clinical trial that examined the effects of smoked cannabis flower on veterans with PTSD.

But there was something lacking in the FDA clinically approved flower—it was poorly- trimmed bud with minimal potency. University of Mississippi was the only supplier of Federally-approved cannabis to be used by researchers. Filled with stems and leaves, the low potency flower led SRI to apply to their own U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) approval to grow its own cannabis for research, stating that the cannabis provided by U MISS/NIDA MONOPOLY was not on par with the cannabis being used by patients at home.

Dr. Sue’s 2016 application to have SRI grow their own cannabis went ignored, and in 2019, she and SRI sued the DEA to reconsider their applications, and it was granted.

Since receiving DEA approval and licensing to grow cannabis for research, SRI has gotten approval to also grow and study psilocybin mushrooms, and LSD. All will be used in clinical trials to treat a variety of ailments.

LSD & magic mushrooms played a special role for Dr. Sue in particular, as her mother, Dr. Hanna Sisley personally experimented with LSD, psilocybin mushrooms and cannabis in the last year of her life, an experience that Dr. Sue believes provided her mother with the best possible quality of life and ability to be interactive and joyful with her family in the last stage before she transitioned. Her journey is featured in an upcoming documentary entitled Hanna‘s Right to Try

In conjunction with SRI, Dr. Sue continues to fight for plant/psychedelic medicine research every day and is excited for the clinical trials with SRI’s homegrown psilocybin mushrooms and cannabis in January 2023.