In some of the rats, the drug apparently lowered inflammation in the hippocampus -- the region of the brain responsible for short-term memory. It also seems to have stimulated the generation of new brain cells.

The following story discusses each candidate's stated position on medical marijuana.

Ever since California voters became the first in the nation to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, the state has faced unyielding opposition from the federal government, which insists it has the power to prohibit a drug it considers useless and dangerous.

That could all change with the next presidential election.

As the candidates prepare for a May 20 primary in Oregon, one of 12 states with a California-style law, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana.

His Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is less explicit, recently softening a pledge she made early in the campaign to halt federal raids in states with medical marijuana laws. But she has expressed none of the hostility that marked the response of her husband's administration to California's initiative, Proposition 215.

WASHINGTON, DC - April 18 - Congressional Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced the "Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act," HR 5842, yesterday, a bill co-sponsored by Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Sam Farr (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Ron Paul (R-TX). The act would change federal policy on medical marijuana in a number of ways. Specifically, HR 5842 would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug, which cannot be prescribed, to a Schedule II drug, which would recognize the medical value of marijuana and create a regulatory framework for the FDA to begin a drug approval process for marijuana. The act would also prevent interference by the federal government in any local or state run medical marijuana program.

Hollywood production crew seeks individuals interested in furthering their knowledge by attending part-time classes at the well-known Oaksterdam University in Oakland and exploring study, work, and vocation within the world of cannabis growing, dispensing, and medical services.

We are searching for individuals from all walks of life with an interest in this subject matter and a relative comfortability being on camera and being recognized in public. All we need from you is passion and honesty.

Participants in the program will receive free school tuition, nice housing, money for living expenses, and per diems.

If interested, please respond via email with some basic information on yourself, contact information, your relationship, if any, to the subject matter, preferably a photo of yourself, and your willingness to be on camera. We will be setting up local interviews for those interested.

This is going to be a lot of fun.

Thanks.

Could Ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms one day be legitimate prescription medicines? It sounds unlikely, but doctors and researchers in the US and across Europe believe it is possible and that new science will prove the case.

Second chances are rare in science. In the Fifties and Sixties, hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD, were hailed as the magic bullet to everything from alcoholism to migraine. But they became caught in the crossfire of the cultural wars of the times. Western politicians banned the use of psychedelics in research once they started to be used recreationally, and became associated with flower-power and the counter culture. The drugs were dangerous; the science was flawed; the researchers biased.

But a comeback has been under way for more than a decade. A new generation of researchers say that psychedelic drugs can treat conditions such as addiction, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and a type of headache called cluster headache.