Chemicals in pot could treat pain

New Orleans Adding new fuel to the controversy over medical uses of
marijuana, researchers reported Sunday that active chemicals found in the
plant could serve as an effective remedy for the millions who suffer
serious pain each year, without the unwanted side effects of more
traditional morphinelike drugs.

New animal studies by research groups at the University of California, San
Francisco, the University of Michigan and Brown University show that a
group of potent chemicals known as cannibinoids, which include the active
ingredient in marijuana, relieve several kinds of pain, including the kind
of inflammation associated with arthritis.