Science Seeks to Unlock Marijuana’s Secrets

As marijuana becomes more accepted, researchers around the world are trying to understand how it works and how it might fight disease.

Photographs by Lynn Johnson

Lily Rowland receives a dose of an oil derived mainly from cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive substance in marijuana. She used to suffer hundreds of seizures with violent convulsions every day. Her family moved to Colorado, which voted to legalize marijuana in 2012, so that she could begin a daily regimen.

The drug doesn’t work for everyone, but today nine-year-old Lily is often seizure free and on her worst days has only one or two.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/marijuana/sides-text