Free Republic

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers traumatised by battle with the Palestinians have a new, unconventional weapon to exorcise their nightmares -- marijuana. Under an experimental programme, Delta-9 tetrohydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient found in the cannabis plant, will be administered to 15 soldiers over the next several months in an effort to fight post-traumatic stress disorder. Raphael Mechoulam of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, the chief researcher behind a project he described as a world-first, said the chemical could trick the brain into suppressing unwanted memories. For soldiers haunted by flashbacks of traumatic battle experiences, he said, the drug, administered in liquid...

WASHINGTON — An annual White House report on countries with drug problems says Canada's relatively lax penalties for marijuana producers and moves toward decriminalizing pot could be an ``invitation" to organized crime that hinders police and prosecutors. Canada isn't on the president's list of 22 major illicit drug-producing and transit countries, which includes Mexico and some South American countries that supply the vast majority of drugs to the United States. But the report cited Canada's "lack of significant judicial sanctions against marijuana producers" and marijuana reform legislation as troublesome. "We are now working intensively with Canadian authorities to address the...

I had to laugh the other night as my wife and I walked our dog. We were strolling through our nearly all-white upper-middle-class suburb singing, "No, no, no, no I don't smoke it no more/I'm tired of waking up on the floor," from the "No No Song" by Ringo Starr, when what to our wondering eyes did appear but a neighbor sporting a joint in his pickup truck. Spying us, he finished his drag and quickly slid the roach into his truck's ashtray. It did not take "Dragnet's" Joe Friday to crack this case. Any American who came of age...