George Mitchell, the man leading an independent investigation of steroid use among Major League Baseball players -- he's also a former U.S. Senate Majority Leader -- has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"The cancer is small, low grade and localized, and can be effectively treated and cured,'' says Mitchell's physician, The prognosis is very good for Mitchell, a Democrat from Maine.

Mitchell, 73, said in a statement that he expects his treatment will not interfere with his investigation that began in March 2006 when he was appointed by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to interview hundreds of people and review thousands of documents.

Medical marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal has been indicted again by a federal grand jury on a number of counts including conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana; money laundering and filing false tax returns related to a marijuana operation.

This is not the first time Rosenthal has been brought up on charges involving medical marijuana activities. Three years ago, he was convicted for cultivating marijuana for a city of Oakland medical marijuana program. An appeals court overturned the conviction this past April, citing jury misconduct, but it upheld federal powers to charge marijuana growers.

The Ask Ed columnist for High Times magazine Rosenthal, 61, known as the Guru of Ganja and author of marijuana cultivation books, is quoted as saying, "What they're trying to show is that they can close down anybody, a legitimate club, a legitimate provider who's sanctioned by the city. They're trying to stop patients from getting their medicine."

Other medical marijuana-related posts include:

• Montel Williams: poster child for pot
  
• Medical marijuana pot pill approved for chemotherapy
• Breast cancer has made me a criminal patient story
• FDA rejects medical marijuana use

Medical use of marijuana on a doctor's recommendation is legal in a number of states but prohibited by federal law.

There are as many carcinogens in marijuana as there are in tobacco, but researchers were surprised to find that people who smoke marijuana are not at an increased risk for developing lung cancer. In fact, marijuana smokers might be receiving a weak level of cancer prevention. People who smoke cigarettes are definitely at a greater risk for developing cancer as a result of smoking, and the more they smoke tobacco, the greater the risk for cancer. But pot smokers do not seem to share the same risk.

According to researchers, and the research, even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or those who never smoked.

Wondering why? Researchers believe it is the THC in marijuana that acts as protection against the damage experienced by any carcinogens a marijuana smoker is exposed to while smoking. Past research has shown that THC has anti-tumor properties. So much for that argument against medical marijuana use.