A research team led by Dr. Donald Abrams of the University of California at San Francisco published a landmark study showing that marijuana provides unique medicinal benefits.

The report, which was published in the journal Neurology, found that smoking marijuana significantly reduced a specific type of pain that often afflicts patients with HIV/AIDS. Patients suffering from peripheral neuropathy can feel as if their hands and feet are on fire, or as if they're being stabbed with a knife. Neuropathic pain — that is, pain caused by damage to the nerves — is also common in several other illnesses, including multiple sclerosis.

Since the advent of AIDS, medical practitioners have been able to do very little to ease the suffering caused by neuropathy. Indeed, there are no FDA-approved treatments for peripheral neuropathy in HIV patients. Even powerful, dangerous, and highly addictive narcotic painkillers are often ineffective in mitigating this pain.

Yet in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (the "gold standard" of scientific research), a majority of HIV/AIDS patients participating in the study experienced more than 30% pain reduction after smoking marijuana. By some measures, the pain relief was even greater.