MARIJUANA MAY BE JUST THE THING FOR JOINTS

The medicinal use of marijuana remains controversial. But the evidence is
piling up concerning the medical effectiveness of some of its constituents.
The latest set of findings suggest that one of its components could ease
the stiff joints caused by arthritis.

Research supported by the Arthritis Research Campaign suggests that
cannabidiol - a natural constituent of cannabis that has no mind-altering
effects in it natural form - may be useful for treating rheumatoid
arthritis and other chronic inflammatory diseases.

Scientists at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in London and Hebrew
University in Jerusalem discovered that cannabidiol suppressed the immune
response of mice with a disease resembling human arthritis. It protected
the mice from severe damage to their joints and markedly improved their
condition, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, a US journal.

* As if farmers did not have enough to worry about, new evidence suggests
that climate change will have a particularly marked effect on agricultural
land. Research published today concludes that farming may make grasslands
more vulnerable to the effects of global warming by disturbing the overall
make-up of their ecosystems.

A team of British scientists mimicked the effects of global warming on
plots of land using heated cables, hoses with spray nozzles and automated
covers that slid over the plots when it rained.

The researchers, who are mostly from the University of Sheffield, tested
two areas of limestone grasslands: an ancient sheep pasture in Derbyshire
and a field in Oxfordshire that was, until recently, used for arable crops.

The results were worrying. They found that the more fertile, recently
farmed land in Oxfordshire was much more vulnerable to the effects of
climate change - with marked variations in the amount and composition of
the vegetation - than the undisturbed land in Derbyshire. As more land goes
into production to feed the world's expanding population, "human impacts
may be making whole landscapes more responsive to climate change", say the
scientists in today's edition of Science, the US journal.