MARIJUANA GENOME: FIGHTING CANCER, DUDE

The announcement that a small Marblehead company has isolated the
genome of the marijuana plant brought the predictable snickers, but
the research seems to hold legitimate medical promise. The company,
Medicinal Genomics, published the hundreds of millions of letters of
DNA that make up Cannabis sativa in hopes of spurring research into
the plant's cancer-fighting potential.

Medical marijuana is legal in 16 states - not including Massachusetts
- - but there is still much to be learned about its possible
therapeutic uses. Unfortunately, though, the debate seems to bring
out the worst in everyone. Foes of drug laws have latched on to
marijuana's medical uses, cynically exploiting them as a way to bring
about de facto legalization. By the same token, drug warriors have
too often simply dismissed out of hand the possibility that the
much-vilified weed might actually be good for you sometimes.

Strip away all the drug-war combat, though, and Cannabis sativa is
just a plant. Its health benefits - or dangers - deserve ordinary
scientific inquiry unclouded by politics. Here's hoping that
Medicinal Genomics can break the mold.