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Via Metafilter, an interesting op-ed on medical marijuana. For new readers, I use legal cannabis for glaucoma in my only functioning eye, chronic pain from arthritis and nerve compression, fibromyalgia, and as a sleep aid. Long term pain should not be treated by opiate based narcotics which are physically addicting, hard on the liver and kidneys and ineffective as the body builds up tolerance.

A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy. LINK