How Marijuana Heals

New evidence of the efficacy and lack of side-effects of marijuana in the treatment of several diseases. On the treatment of chronic pain:

“Cannabinoids may augment the analgesic effects of opioids, allowing longer treatment at lower doses with fewer side effects.”

This is an empirical and scientific question, not a social or moral one. And what many do not seem to understand is that marijuana is often most effective in enabling patients to tolerate medication regimens that would otherwise be impossible to maintain: chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis meds, AIDS therapy, etc. And yet it is still close to impossible to do real research on it ... because it may give people pleasure. One day, people are going to look back on this small period of prohibition and wonder what on earth were people thinking of.

(By the way, Fortune's recent cover-story on the de facto legalization of pot in California is one of the most thorough and informative I've read. Yes, it's the cover of Fortune. The times they are a-changing.)