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, whose role as a fashionable and fearless drug dealer in the 1972 blaxploitation film Superfly made him a cult hero among many African Americans, has died. He was 66. Mr. O'Neal, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, died Wednesday in Los Angeles.
'Varsity Blues' actor Ron Lester dies at 45. Ron Lester from 'Varsity Blues' died Friday in Dallas at age 45. Ron Lester, whose husky character Billy Bob provided much of the comic relief in the 1999 Texas high-school football drama Varsity Blues, died Friday of organ failure. He was 45.