Last week, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan's Neuropsychiatry Research Unit reported that rats that were given a compound called HU-210, a synthetic cannabinoid 100 times more powerful than THC, experienced generation of new brain cells in their hippocampuses. The finding was reported this month in the magazine Nature and will be published in November in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Today, a study from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs reveals that marijuana smoke may not cause lung cancer as tobacco smoke does:

The difference rests in the often opposing actions of the nicotine in tobacco and the active ingredient, THC, in marijuana, says Dr. Robert Melamede of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

He reviewed the scientific evidence supporting this contention in a recent issue of Harm Reduction Journal.

Whereas nicotine has several effects that promote lung and other types of cancer, THC acts in ways that counter the cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana smoke, Melamede explained in an interview with Reuters Health.

"THC turns down the carcinogenic potential," he said.

For example, lab research indicates that nicotine activates a body enzyme that converts certain chemicals in both tobacco and marijuana smoke into cancer-promoting form. In contrast, studies in mice suggest that THC blocks this enzyme activity.

Okay, so maybe marijuana isn't good for you. But alcohol and tobacco are worse for you from a health standpoint than marijuana. Why are they legal? They got in the door first. Then, when we became Puritans, alcohol and tobacco were already there, and so we said, "Okay, you can stay, but every other drug has to leave!"

Marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance, according to the DEA. ("Schedule I" just means that, according to the Controlled Substances Act, a drug has a "high potential for abuse" and "has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." Cf. 21 U.S.C. 812.) Also listed in Schedule I are heroin, GHB (the "date rape" drug), LSD, mescaline, and peyote. Let's get serious, kids. Marijuana is lumped into the same category as heroin, even though there is no such thing as a physical addiction to marijauana and there has never been a substantiated case of a marijuana overdose. It just doesn't happen. It can't happen. Marijuana is far safer for your body than alcohol, and yet marijuana is the subject of restrictions that are not equal to the dangers it causes.