American Pain Society. Summary: The growing body of evidence that marijuana (cannabis) may be effective as a pain reliever has been expanded with publication of a new study in The Journal of Pain reporting that patients with nerve pain showed reduced pain intensity from smoking marijuana. Researchers examined whether marijuana produces analgesia for patients with neuropathic pain.
Ron O'Neal. Ron O'Neal. Ron O'Neal, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 66, spent most of his professional life trying to live down his role of the bad-ass Youngblood Priest in Superfly (1972), one of the key blaxploitation movies of the decade.
Don Pardo, the man whose voice introduced the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live for decades, died at the age of 96, the network announced August 19. Skateboarding legend Jay Adams died of a heart attack August 14 while vacationing in Mexico with his wife. He was 53. Ed Nelson, best known for playing a doctor in the 1960s nighttime soap opera Peyton Place, died on August 13, his family said. He was 85. Actress Arlene Martel, whom Star Trek fans knew as Spock's bride-to-be, died in a Los Angeles hospital August 12 after complications from a heart attack, her son said.