A Career Built on Conviction
Dr. Sue Sisley's journey to becoming one of the most important figures in psychedelic research started with a simple observation: her veteran patients kept telling her that cannabis was helping their PTSD when nothing else would.
A board-certified internist and psychiatrist, Dr. Sisley held dual residencies in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and spent nearly eight years as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. She approached cannabis research skeptically — but she listened to her patients.
In June 2014, she was fired from the University of Arizona. The official reason was "funding and reorganization issues." But Dr. Sisley and her supporters believed it was retaliation for her advocacy around cannabis research for veterans. The story became national news. Rolling Stone later named her one of their top 25 people in tech and research — alongside Elon Musk.
Rather than retreat, she founded the Scottsdale Research Institute and spent the next decade fighting federal bureaucracies to make psychedelic research legally possible.
Breaking the Federal Monopoly
For 50 years, the University of Mississippi held a monopoly on federally-approved cannabis cultivation for research. Researchers who wanted to study cannabis had to use Mississippi-grown material that Dr. Sisley and others described as drastically inferior to what patients accessed in real-world settings.
Dr. Sisley didn't just complain — she challenged the system. She successfully petitioned the DEA, DOJ, and Attorney General to open legal pathways for Schedule I research. SRI now holds eight DEA Schedule I licenses authorizing cultivation, research, analytical lab work, import/export, and manufacturing of controlled substances.
Her first breakthrough trial — the first controlled study of smoked cannabis for PTSD in 80 veterans — published in PLOS ONE in 2021. While efficacy results were inconclusive (partly due to the inferior quality of federally-supplied cannabis), the study raised no safety concerns and proved the research was feasible. The larger follow-up trial (MJP2) — 320 veterans across multiple states, $12.9 million in funding — is now underway.
The World's First Whole-Mushroom Psilocybin Trial
SRI's most groundbreaking project is the first-ever FDA-approved clinical trial using whole psilocybin mushrooms — not synthetic psilocybin — for PTSD. The study enrolled 24 participants split evenly between police officers, firefighters, and military veterans.
Dr. Sisley's hypothesis is provocative: whole mushrooms may have an "entourage effect" superior to isolated psilocybin. Just as whole-plant cannabis may work differently than isolated THC, the full spectrum of compounds in psilocybin mushrooms may produce therapeutic effects that synthetic psilocybin cannot replicate.
The trial uses a specific cultivar that Dr. Sisley's team grows in their DEA-licensed laboratory. Participants receive 4.5 grams of dried mushrooms (delivering approximately 30mg psilocybin) in a group therapy setting with monitored rooms, soft lighting, and curated music. Integration sessions follow.
And then there's JD — SRI's goldendoodle therapy dog who is FDA-approved for use during dosing sessions. Rather than relying on human touch during altered states (a concern highlighted by controversies in other psychedelic therapy programs), SRI uses JD's intuitive nature to comfort participants. "The dogs are very intuitive," Dr. Sisley has said. "They know what people need." It's a small detail that speaks volumes about SRI's patient-first approach.
The demand far exceeds capacity: over 300 firefighters and 50+ police officers are on waiting lists. The Arizona legislature allocated $2.75 million from a $5 million state grant (HB 2486) to fund the research.
Why ExtraLife Admires SRI
ExtraLife and SRI share a geography — both are rooted in Scottsdale — but more importantly, they share a philosophy. Both believe that patients deserve access to every possible therapeutic option. Both believe that natural compounds deserve rigorous scientific study. Both prioritize transparency and open data.
Dr. Sisley has committed to releasing all data publicly — "the good data, the bad data." That's the same standard ExtraLife Hearing holds itself to: every dollar tracked, every finding reported, full transparency.
While SRI's current trials focus on PTSD rather than tinnitus, the neural plasticity mechanisms being studied are directly relevant to our three-pillar research thesis. PTSD and tinnitus share deep neurological overlaps — both involve maladaptive neural patterns, both involve the limbic system, and both may respond to the kind of neural rewiring that psilocybin promotes.
SRI operates as our IRB partnership for Phase 1 of the ExtraLife Hearing research roadmap. Together, we're building the foundation for tinnitus-focused psychedelic research that doesn't exist yet — but should.
This article is for educational purposes only. Psychedelic substances are Schedule I controlled substances at the federal level. All research described operates within legal frameworks. No cure claims are made.