Maybe the smoke is about to clear in the debate over medical marijuana. Few ideas, it seems, are so firmly held by the public and so doubted by the medical profession as the healing powers of pot.
Pot eases pain, settles the stomach, builds weight and steadies spastic muscles.
And that's hardly the beginning. They speak of relief from PMS, glaucoma, itching, insomnia, arthritis, depression, childbirth, attention deficit disorder and ringing in the ears. Marijuana is a powerful and needed medicine, they say, tragically withheld by misplaced phobia about drug addiction. However, the drive to legalize medical marijuana is based almost entirely on the testimonials of sick people who swear it makes them feel better. Those stories are not the kind of dispassionate experimentation that drives medical thinking.