Serious question about marijuana [View All]

[Dreamer Tatum]

I'm agnostic about the legalization of marijuana, generally because of the extreme histrionics of both the pro- AND anti-weed camps. At the same time, I'm against ANY dried plant matter being smoked in front of me, because I think it smells like shit.

That said, almost all of our drugs are distilled in one way or another from plant matter, so I don't see why weed should be any different.

Here's the question: have there been any serious, controlled studies or clinical trials that have revealed any therapeutic or pharmaceutical benefits from weed, or any of its derivatives?

(disclaimer for the knee-jerk DUers out there: by ASKING the question, I'm not BEGGING the question. I'm ASKING THE QUESTION.)

And I get it: you can make rope from hemp. I just don't think anyone won a critical public policy debate by finding better ingredients for rope.

I'd be happy with citations of studies rather than links to sites like http://dudeweedkicksass.com/studiesandshit.