Have you ever wondered why marijuana affects us the way it does? What is it that makes THC and CBD react with our bodies, healing and offering relief to the ill? What makes this plant such a diverse medicine, able to treat such a large number of vastly different conditions? 

If you had asked this question fifty years ago, there wouldn’t have been an answer for you to find. Unfortunately, the extraction methods available in the early 1900s made it difficult to determine which one of the 80+ cannabinoids found in cannabis was the psychoactive cannabinoid responsible for the effects of marijuana. 

The truth is, it’s only been in the last couple of decades that scientists have truly even begun to understand the ways cannabis works within our bodies. 

Monroe and others think that marijuana is an effective and safe solution for pain relief.

While there's slowly been a growing and serious discussion about marijuana and its legality in this country, we've hardly seen any such talk in the NFL. The substance has been somewhat of a taboo subject in league circles, with league officials hardly even entertaining discussion about changing their stances on marijuana in football.

The president of a pro-marijuana group said there is confusion for many medical marijuana users and providers, after the Montana Supreme Court issued its ruling two weeks ago.

Last week, the Montana Cannabis Information Association asked the court to reconsider its ruling that left nearly all of a law passed by the legislature in 2011 intact and to delay implementation of that law until April of 2017.

Compassionate doctors play a very, very big role in a medical marijuana program. States can create all of the lists of qualifying conditions that they want, but if there aren’t doctors that are willing to sign patients’ forms, a state medical marijuana program will never go anywhere. That’s why states need to refrain from putting added barriers in the way of a doctor helping a sick patient. If states put in additional hoops for a doctor to jump through, they are going to be even less inclined to help medical marijuana patients.

Allison Barker Watson is a former Tennessee assistant district attorney for the 13th Judicial District. She is also a board member of the Tennessee Research Institute and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association has joined a growing roster of opponents to a proposed ballot measure that would legalize marijuana in Massachusetts.

The group’s board of trustees voted unanimously last week to oppose the measure, citing public health and safety concerns, including greater youth access to the drug.

“Clinicians and healthcare leaders from around the state have a clear message — this ballot measure is the wrong prescription for Massachusetts,” said Lynn Nicholas, chief executive of the hospital association, in a written statement.

Washington's top international narcotics official gave a qualified go-ahead for countries to decriminalize drugs on Tuesday — the latest sign that the US is walking back decades of hardline rhetoric ahead of a pivotal special session of the United Nations General Assembly on global drug policy in April.

Cannabis News Network launches a miniseries on one of the hottest topics in cannabis regulation: the medicinal benefits of the plant and the struggle of patients to get access to it! Featuring Canada, Australia, Mexico, the United States, and Germany. Watch above.

If you play professional football, "your job automatically gives you the symptom of chronic pain," said Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe, who has played in the NFL since 2009. "You're hitting each other as hard as possible every single day in practice. Your body is in pain a lot of time."

More and more players are looking to marijuana for pain relief, he said, despite risking punishment from the NFL.

Second annual CannaTech conference brings hundreds of delegates from 15 countries to see what Israeli ‘cannapreneurs’ can offer them.

Marijuana conferences are popping up on a near weekly basis in the United States. Entrepreneurs, scientists and investors have to weed out the recreational gatherings from the more important industry confabs.

But there was no doubt that the CannaTech 2016 International Summit on Cannabis Innovation this week in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem was an essential event.