RE: New Comprehensive Study Confirms Medical Benefits of Cannabis
The whole reason marijuana is illegal in the first place was because of the tree paper industry. They lobbied and got marijuana made illegal to put a stop to the production of hemp paper.
http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/pot/blunderof37.html
I have said it before and I will say it again, and again. The legal status of marajuana stifles scientific work looking into the effects of canabanoids, of which there are a variety of potential and somewhat promising therapeutic avenues. These canabanoids aren't even ones that make you feel high, its lunacy to not allow work on any such compound that could ease human suffering.
I say all this, as someone who does not smoke marijuana (well at least not with any regularity, I am not against doing so in any capacity).