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.
South Africa's Nelson Mandela dies in Johannesburg. Read more about sharing. South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has died at the age of 95. Mr Mandela led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison for his political activities. He had been receiving intensive medical care at home for a lung infection after spending three months in hospital.