The growing acceptance of marijuana nationwide in the past few years has been nothing short of exceptional, and pushes for legalization of the drug continue to intensify as more states legalize it. Evidence for its medical uses continues to grow as well, and a recent study indicates that THC could be used to battle Alzheimer’s disease — but don’t expect the finding to sway the federal government, which has remained stubbornly steadfast in its position that marijuana is a threat to society.

The latest study, which was published in the journal Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, found that a compound in marijuana helped trigger the removal of beta-amyloid proteins from nerve cells, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, as we reported recently. The chemical in marijuana, THC, could potentially be used to stop nerve cells from dying and therefore halt the effects of Alzheimer’s.

It’s the latest discovery that seems to further show what a wonderdrug marijuana is, but the feds on their website have a description of marijuana that seems a bit out of step with modern society.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has some reasonable warnings on its website that “substantial evidence” indicates that marijuana exposure during development can result in possible permanent adverse affects in the brain.

However, NIDA also has content that continues to push the long-debunked theory that marijuana is a gateway drug. Many sites have debunked the notion as a myth, noting that marijuana users rarely advance to harder drugs, but it’s a theory that still gets pushed by the government.

NIDA admits that the majority of people who use marijuana don’t go on to use harder substances, and that there are possibly other explanations. However, it stops short of admitting that there’s no evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug, stating only that “further research is needed to explore this question.”