Beam on medical marijuana.

Amanda Beam is on a roll lately. Whenever I can make it past the barbed wire and searchlights of Bill Hanson's advertisement-strewn newspaper paywall, I read her column, and it's always excellent.

Like this week's essay. Mention of "medical marijuana" inevitably induces misplaced chortling ... and here is why that's mistaken.

BEAM: Oh the web we weave, by Amanda Beam (N and T)

 ... “Now he’s on all these drugs,” Megan said. “If there is something else out there that might work, I don’t care what the side effects are because we’ve already put him through all this.”

But there is hope. With treatment options running out, studies have shown a strain of marijuana commonly known as Charlotte’s Web may provide some relief.

Named after an 8-year-old Colorado girl with epilepsy, Charlotte’s Web is a marijuana extract that contains high levels of an ingredient called cannabidiol (CBD) while having less of the mind-altering tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Basically, this type of cannabis delivers the useful chemicals from the plant without making patients high.