Start­up EPM launch­es, high off cannabi­noid acid in­no­va­tion

When Sue Sis­ley opened the first bag of her Wash­ing­ton-li­censed weed, she knew some­thing was wrong. It came with the verisimil­i­tude of gov­ern­ment cheese, a bu­reau­crat­ic knock-off that nei­ther looked nor smelled like the re­al thing.

“It was this green pow­der with lit­tle sticks and leaves,” Sis­ley, head of the Scotts­dale Re­search Group, told End­points News ear­li­er this month.”So di­lut­ed.”

Two years ago, Sis­ley gained ap­proval for a PhII study on the ef­fects of mar­i­jua­na on vet­er­ans with PTSD. Since the 1960s, though, the DEA has on­ly al­lowed one lab in the coun­try, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mis­sis­sip­pi, to grow mar­i­jua­na. That meant that when Sis­ley and oth­er re­searchers be­gan some of the first mod­ern stud­ies on med­ical mar­i­jua­na, they were forced to use a prod­uct that looks more like oregano than weed. Al­so, it ap­peared to be moldy.

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