Hey I was asked to participate in this study... Of course the findings are what I already knew. A clinical trial conducted at the University of California at Davis and just published online by the Journal of Pain has demonstrated significant relief of neuropathic pain (pain caused by damage to nerves) stemming from a variety of causes. This is the second study in just over a year to show that marijuana relieves neuropathic pain, which is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs, including opioid narcotics.

How many studies does the Government need? On top of that how many Doctors do they need to hear from:

"This is yet more proof that the American College of Physicians was right that U.S. government policy on medical marijuana is totally divorced from scientific reality," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "Congress needs to act to end the federal war on medical marijuana, but in the meantime states should act on their own to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest, as several states are considering right now."

The author of a recent publication; “Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids: A Review of the Scientific Literature" (available here) made a post on The Hawaii Reporter about the claims of the DEA that smoked Marijuana is not medicine. We all know this to be not true, but the American government still doesn't recognize Marijuana as a medicine. This is a really great article, this is the kind of debate we need to be having about Marijuana, here's a clip from the story:

As the author of the recent publication, “Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids: A Review of the Scientific Literature,� I take umbrage with those politicians and law enforcement officials who argue, "Smoked marijuana is not medicine." This allegation -- most recently asserted on the DEA's new website - http://www.JustThinkTwice.com -- is false, plain and simple.

While writing the abovementioned booklet, I reviewed over 150 clinical and preclinical studies assessing the therapeutic value of cannabis and its active compounds to treat symptoms -- and in some cases moderate disease progression -- in a variety of illness, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, diabetes, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Nearly all of the studies cited in my work were published within the past six years.

A man after Smokedot's heart.

Blaise Frederick has displayed some excellent pothead ingenuity (article with pics), and built a waterbong that allows his team's research subjects to toke comfortably while lying down inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine.

The device is made up of two components: the bowl and water filter remain outside the MRI inside a plastic cooler, and the test subject inside the MRI wears a mask connected by tubing to the cooler. The mask is made entirely of nonmetallic materials such as acrylic glass so that it does not pose a hazard near the strong magnetic fields MRI machines produce. An exhaust tube is also attached, which prevents baking out the lab room.