Bill Would Make Minnesota the 13th State to Allow Medical Uses Within Strict Limits.

If marijuana were a new discovery, without cultural and political baggage, "it would be hailed as a wonder drug," wrote Dr. Lester Grinspoon last year. The Harvard psychiatrist has advocated for medical marijuana for decades.

Yet a gap has persisted between what many believe about medical marijuana's potential and what scientists could prove. Now recent research has applied the same rigor that would be used on any new pill to testing marijuana.

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A marijuana-like drug was less effective than standard treatment in helping cancer patients fight appetite loss and weight loss, researchers at the Mayo Clinic say.

Their study disappointed scientists who had hoped to find a better way of treating a problem that plagues more than half of patients with advanced cancer.

The researchers compared Marinol, a synthetic version of THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana, with a drug that's routinely used to curb appetite loss, megestrol acetate, in 469 people with advanced cancer.

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A marijuana-like drug was less effective than standard treatment in helping cancer patients fight appetite loss and weight loss, researchers at the Mayo Clinic say.

Their study disappointed scientists who had hoped to find a better way of treating a problem that plagues more than half of patients with advanced cancer.

The researchers compared Marinol, a synthetic version of THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana, with a drug that's routinely used to curb appetite loss, megestrol acetate, in 469 people with advanced cancer.

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A marijuana-like drug was less effective than standard treatment in helping cancer patients fight appetite loss and weight loss, researchers at the Mayo Clinic say.

Their study disappointed scientists who had hoped to find a better way of treating a problem that plagues more than half of patients with advanced cancer.

The researchers compared Marinol, a synthetic version of THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana, with a drug that's routinely used to curb appetite loss, megestrol acetate, in 469 people with advanced cancer.

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A popular "party drug" once touted as a dietary supplement is causing comas, injuries and even deaths around the country, yet it's being widely sold on the Internet with false assurances about its safety, according to a report led by researchers at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC).

The drug is an industrial solvent known as 1,4-BD (for butanediol), and it has been sold on the Internet with names such as "Zen" and "Thunder Nectar."

A popular "party drug" -- 1,4-butane -- is being sold under names such as "Zen", "Thunder Nectar" "Rejoov" and "Serenity." And it's increasingly showing up in emergency rooms as well as nightclubs in the Twin Cities as well as elsewhere in the nation, according to experts.

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