No medicinal benefit from Marijuana - USA

Monday's report
Supreme Court rules on marijuana
From CNN's Wolf Blitzer:

Have you noticed lately how many crime stories we in the news media seem to be covering on a daily basis?
Reporters always have been fascinated by crime stories. They have been the hallmark, especially, of local news organizations. "If it bleeds, it leads," has often been heard in local television news rooms.
But major national news programs have often focused elsewhere, whether on international affairs, economic issues, medical breakthroughs, and politics. Those of us fortunate to work for national news organizations have usually relished getting to cover a wide range of stories.
But crime is a theme that appears to have dominated much of the news in recent days. There's the fallout from the delayed execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind of the worst domestic terrorist crime in U.S. history. There's the criminal trial of 14-year-old Nathaniel Brazill in Florida concerning the killing of a middle school English teacher last year.
Today, the Coast Guard seized more than 13 tons - yes, that's tons -- of cocaine hidden in compartments aboard a fishing boat off the coast of San Diego. It is being described as the largest maritime cocaine bust in American history.
There's another crime story that we have been covering today. But there's a twist here. This one involves the crime of using marijuana for medical purposes. The U.S. Supreme Court today concluded unanimously that the federal law that bans the use of marijuana -- even for medical purposes -- is in fact constitutional. The nation's highest court ruled against California cannabis clubs that distribute marijuana to help patients deal with cancer treatment, glaucoma, AIDS and other diseases. The decision is seen as a major setback for the proponents of medical marijuana.
The Supreme Court decision spanned the Justices' ideological views. Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, wrote the opinion. The ruling declared that a U.S. Appeals Court earlier had been wrong in ruling that marijuana clubs in California could distribute the drug to seriously ill patients. Those patients had claimed that marijuana helped them deal with the pain of treatment or allowed them to eat and regain their strength. Others said it helped them overcome nausea that is often affiliated with chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Justice Thomas was joined by the more liberal members of the court, including John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They all agreed that the federal government could control marijuana, even for medical purposes.
We saw on CNN later in the day a live news conference held in Oakland, California, where medical marijuana proponents, including patients who insist the drug has helped them cope with painful treatments, spoke out passionately against the Supreme Court decision. This debate is clearly going to continue.
One issue at the center of the debate will be the actual medical benefits of marijuana. There seems to be an enormous amount of anecdotal accounts backing up the benefits. But the science of those studies remains a focus of debate among medical and health professionals.
There seems to be a different slant in Canada. I noticed an Associated Press report today that pointed out that Canada only last month announced plans to make it easier to possess and cultivate marijuana for medical purposes. The same is the case in several European countries.
From: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/wolf.blitzer.reports/

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