Today’s Washington Post features another great article on the subject of medical marijuana.  It’s a particularly good article in that it features an interview with Dr. Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology who for the past 10 years has lead a research project for the National Institutes of Health concerning the the impact of marijuana and other drugs on the brain.

In particular, when asked whether marijuana has any medical benefit, the Dr. explains:

Several controlled clinical trials have been carried out in the last few years, using either smoked marijuana or a mouth spray that contains an extract of the marijuana plant. The results are quite consistent. They show that marijuana improves the well-being of patients with multiple sclerosis and alleviates chronic pain in patients with damage or dysfunction of nerve fibers (so-called neuropathic pain).

And, when asked about the risks, the Dr. offers the following:

Marijuana can produce dependence, though less aggressively than, say, tobacco or the so-called opiate painkillers.

Way to go Dr. Piomelli!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 4:04 am and is filed under Medical Cannabis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.