http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=new-di...le-of-the-bulge

'Want to lose weight but lack the willpower to just say no to fatty foods and sweets? Help may be on the way. The first clinical trials of an experimental weight-loss drug show that it helps curb appetite—and burn more fat—even at low doses.

Researchers report in the journal Cell Metabolism that taranabant, developed by drug giant Merck, is the second drug found to be successful in fighting flab by blocking cannabinoid receptors (responsible for the psychological effects of marijuana a.k.a. Cannabis sativa) in the brain's reward circuitry.

"The effects of marijuana on appetite have been known for millennia from its medicinal and recreational use," said study author Steven Heymsfield of Merck Research Laboratories. "The ingredient responsible stimulates cannabinoid receptors. When you block the cannabinoid system with an antagonist like taranabant, you suppress appetite."

The first indication that the cannabinoid-1 (CB1) receptor might be a prime weight-loss target came during studies of an earlier drug called rimonabant (manufactured by sanofi-aventis), which is now available as a diet aid in several European countries but has yet to receive the Food and Drug Administration's nod for use in the U.S.'