[is pot good for memory?]

In Dan Savage's sex-advice column this week, wedged in there with all the raunchy stuff, is this remarkable quote:

Google "marijuana" ... and wedged in there with the stories about this week's numerous, ineffectual pot busts — so many pot busts, so little trouble buying pot — you'll find this: A study conducted by the reputable Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient — tetrahydrocannabinol or THC — is more effective at preventing Alzheimer's disease than any of the legal drugs on the market today.

Sure enough, here's the Scripps press release. How ironic would it be if marijuana turned out to be good for your memory?

Disregarding the larger debate over legalizing recreational possession and use of marijuana (Nevada and Colorado will be voting this November on whether to do just that), the Scripps study strikes me as yet more evidence that the federal government's opposition to even medical use and study of marijuana is faith-based — and not necessarily in good faith, either. It's just one more way our government is replacing science and factual evidence with fantasies and baseless fear.