Back in 2009, I wrote a post entitled: “Will Dr. Sanjay Gupta Change His Mind About Medical Weed?” I’m happy to report, almost four years after asking that question, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent has done just that. “This wasn’t an easy article to write, but it’s honest,” writes Dr. Gupta on his Twitter today. “I hope it helps patients who have been denied therapy.” His tweet links to an article on CNN with the headline:”Why I changed my mind on weed.”
In addition to plugging his upcoming documentary on the subject, he explains how he’s sorry for not acting like a real doctor and for listening to DEA propaganda:
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.
He goes on to cite a 1944 study, by none other than New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia:
Among their conclusions: they found marijuana did not lead to significant addiction in the medical sense of the word. They also did not find any evidence marijuana led to morphine, heroin or cocaine addiction.
It will be interesting to see how the DEA responds once they’re done explaining their other fits of lying and deception.
