Sue Sisley is still having trouble getting her ground-breaking work on the effects of cannabis on veterans with PTSD recognized in Arizona, where she is based — and lost three state contracts last summer. But she’s found much more success in other states, including Colorado,  which approved her grant application for $2 million to further her research late last year.

And today, Sisley will be honored by Americans for Safe Access as Researcher of the Year at the National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference in Washington, D.C. Many of the veterans who have battled alongside the doctor to further her marijuana/PTSD research will be on stage with Sisley to accept the honor this evening.

Sisley presented a program at the conference yesterday, describing many of the obstacles she also detailed when she was in Denver last fall. A physican who specializes in internal medicine and psychiatry, Sisley is the principal investigator for the only FDA-approved randomized controlled trial looking at use of whole-plant marijuana in combat veterans with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder; that study was based at the University of Arizona, where in 2001, Sisley won the UA’s Leo B. Hart Humanitarian Award for “outstanding contributions made for social reform” by the University of Arizona College of Medicine. [Read more at The Westword]