Jim Rendon

Medical marijuana is legal in 20 states, and is used to treat symptoms of multiple sclerosis, AIDS, side effects of chemotherapy, as well as pain, glaucoma, epilepsy, insomnia, and anxiety. Dr. Igor Grant, Distinguished Professor and Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD School of Medicine and Director of the UC Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, tells us about his research into the possible utility of cannabis compounds in the amelioration of certain severe manifestations of disease. And Jim Rendon, author of Supercharged: How Outlaws, Hippies, and Scientists Reinvented Marijuana, talks about the changing attitudes toward marijuana and how the increasing acceptance of medical marijuana is changing the legal and commercial landscape.

In his State of the State Address Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York will begin a medical marijuana program on a limited basis. Jim Rendon, freelance writer and author of the book Super-Charged: How Hippies, Outlaws, and Scientists Reinvented Marijuana, looks at the plan.

Since the mid 1990s, 16 states and the District of Columbia have passed medical marijuana laws. In some states, like California, a vast growing and dispensary system has sprung up for a drug that the federal government still considers illegal. Journalist Jim Rendon went behind the scenes with many of the people who work in what is both an illicit and quasi-legal industry. His book is called Supercharged: How Outlaws Hippies and Scientists Reinvented Marijuana.