Dr. Sanjay Gupta comes out in support of medical marijuana

[Vikrant]

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta has something to say about marijuana: I was wrong.

The high-profile doc, who is CNN's chief medical correspondent, apologized for "not looking hard enough" at the research on medicinal marijuana that suggests it can help treat conditions from chronic pain to post-traumatic stress disorder.

"We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that," he wrote in an op-ed published Thursday on CNN.com.

"It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works."
Gupta, who authored a 2009 Time magazine article titled "Why I would Vote No on Pot," changed his mind while working on his documentary "Weed," which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on CNN.

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Read more: Dr. Sanjay Gupta comes out in support of medical marijuana: ?We have been terribly and systematically misled?* - NY Daily News

 

[American_Jihad]

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta does an about-face on marijuanaby ​

Jen Hayden
Aug 08, 2013

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This morning he's apologizing and announcing he's completely changed his mind.


I apologize because I didn't look hard enough, until now. I didn't look far enough. I didn't review papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.
Instead, I lumped them with the high-visibility malingerers, just looking to get high. I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have "no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse."

They didn't have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true. It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works. Take the case of Charlotte Figi, who I met in Colorado. She started having seizures soon after birth. By age 3, she was having 300 a week, despite being on seven different medications. Medical marijuana has calmed her brain, limiting her seizures to 2 or 3 per month.

We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.

Whoa! Dr. Gupta just called out the DEA for the baseless claim that marijuana is a schedule 1 substance. And he did so in the strongest of terms.

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[url=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/08/1229752/-CNN-s-Dr-Sanjay-Gupta-does-an-about-face-on-marijuana#]Daily Krap: CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta does an about-face on marijuana[/URL]