With the passage last year of Proposition 215 in California and similar measures in Arizona and other states, voters have indicated their belief that marijuana should be made available for medicinal purposes. In response, the Office of National Drug Control Policy requested that the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences undertake an 18-month study to assess the science base, the therapeutic use, and the economics of medical marijuana. The study will not be completed until the end of this year, but it is certain to highlight the extent to which research on medical marijuana has entered the mainstream of science.
NEW TOOLS: Wake Forest's Steven Childers notes that researchers only recently became able to study the interaction of cannabinoid compounds with their receptors. But it's not just the impetus of political events that is driving the renewed interest in studying marijuana and its active compounds, the cannabinoids. ...
