Dr. Sanjay Gupta Changes Stance On Medical Marijuana

[legendairy stinson]

One of America's most prominent doctors says he has shifted his stance in support of medical marijuana.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent at CNN and a CBS News contributing medical correspondent, wrote a post today on CNN.com called, "Why I changed my mind on weed," in which he describes his change of heart that occurred while filming a documentary, aptly titled, "Weed."

"Long before I began this project, I had steadily reviewed the scientific literature on medical marijuana from the United States and thought it was fairly unimpressive," wrote Gupta. "Well, I am here to apologize."

Gupta says he was too dismissive of the "loud chorus" of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved with help from medical marijuana. He now says, "I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance [a category of dangerous drugs] because of sound scientific proof."

"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," wrote Gupta, citing patient cases including a 3-year-old whose seizures were dramatically reduced from 300 a week to three a month with medical marijuana's help.

He adds that marijuana does not have a high potential for addiction compared to cocaine, or even cigarettes.

Gupta is a faculty member in the department of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and in 2009, reports suggested he was offered the post of Surgeon General by President Barack Obama.

He pointed out tolerance is a real problem in existing medications: People are likely to overdose from a prescription drug every 19 minutes, but he couldn't come across one case of a marijuana overdose.

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

Rest of the article:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162...ical-marijuana-apologizes-for-previous-views/

 

[Kimchi Papi]

That woman from CO having up to 300 seizures a week & then smoking herb reducing it down to 2-3 is crazy... Good to see someone prominent being able to reexamine their opinion & admitting their wrong. Most of NT could learn from that...

The only thing that bothers me about legalizing pot is the farming of herb has a terrible effect on the environment...

 

[nazdrowie]

kind of surprised he thought otherwise...

 

[trilluminated]

the boy gupta probably tried some of that california and had a change of heart asap.

 

[RIP sleazyy]

 

[moe fab]

Just seen it. Wanna check out that Doc Sun.

 

[melo0115]

kind of surprised he thought otherwise...

This was his reasoning:

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."

Knowing that it's in the same class of drugs as heroin and peyote is disgusting...

We now know that while estimates vary, marijuana leads to dependence in around 9 to 10% of its adult users. By comparison, cocaine, a schedule 2 substance "with less abuse potential than schedule 1 drugs" hooks 20% of those who use it. Around 25% of heroin users become addicted.

The worst is tobacco, where the number is closer to 30% of smokers, many of whom go on to die because of their addiction.

 

[Majorbread]

 

[ice city fc]

That woman from CO having up to 300 seizures a week & then smoking herb reducing it down to 2-3 is crazy... Good to see someone prominent being able to reexamine their opinion & admitting their wrong. Most of NT could learn from that...

The only thing that bothers me about legalizing pot is the farming of herb has a terrible effect on the environment...

Is this true? Surely it can't be any worse than the majority of other crops grown. 

 

[AZwildcats]

That woman from CO having up to 300 seizures a week & then smoking herb reducing it down to 2-3 is crazy... Good to see someone prominent being able to reexamine their opinion & admitting their wrong. Most of NT could learn from that...

The only thing that bothers me about legalizing pot is the farming of herb has a terrible effect on the environment...

Is this true? Surely it can't be any worse than the majority of other crops grown. 

From what I know, pot plants need more water then other crops to grow. Thats all i can see that might be different then other crops

As for the doctor, its good to see him changing his opinion. I am still a skeptic about the majority of medical weed users and their "health problems", but if it actually helps people more power to them. It needs to be decriminalized anyway

 

[gllahone84]

Anybody on here live in Cincinnati?

 

[Gill Baka Esq. LLC.]

Man I used to **** with S. Gupta but dude is just a political herb. I like that he's now for medical marijuana and admits to his shortcomings though.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

If you have half an IQ and any amout of facts this is the only reasonable determination to come to.

 

[guzzy]

 

[teamjordan79]

That woman from CO having up to 300 seizures a week

Is this true? Surely it can't be any worse than the majority of other crops grown. 

Not really. It takes 1 acre to produce the same amount of pulp for paper as 4 acres of trees. (keep in mind that trees develop for years while hemp is only 1 season). So it depends what it is being produced for. This is major because it can completely reverse deforestation in the world if we opted for hemp instead of wood pulp among other things. Plus a lot of weed can be grown outdoors without anything extra. Lots of water and fertilizer are used to produce superior strains and a lot of growing won't be done for that end. Simply put, cannabis is very robust and grows, well, like weed. Bottom line is that a plant that grows naturally all over the world cannot be bad for the environment.

 

[wr]

Study says it will be legal multibillion dollar industry globally by 2016. Best beleive the captains of industry will have their corner on the market.

It's already crazy how big companies ate already profiting from weed culture via merchandise and branding like bob marley. he's literally the mj of....well mj lol

 

[rell826]

Not a weed guy so this doesnt pertain to me. There are a lot of frauds out there using the medical excuse *coughs California* to hide their addictions. Not as easy to decriminalize it as you would like to believe. There's already a criminal element to it that will not go away if that happens and its the #1 cash crop of the cartels. They aren't about to let that money go either.

 

[teamjordan79]

Not a weed guy so this doesnt pertain to me. There are a lot of frauds out there using the medical excuse *coughs California* to hide their addictions. Not as easy to decriminalize it as you would like to believe. There's already a criminal element to it that will not go away if that happens and its the #1 cash crop of the cartels. They aren't about to let that money go either.

using the medical excuse to access the best quality weed available without going through shady dealers...seems.....logical.

 

[jaysrcrak]

That woman from CO having up to 300 seizures a week & then smoking herb reducing it down to 2-3 is crazy... Good to see someone prominent being able to reexamine their opinion & admitting their wrong. Most of NT could learn from that...

The only thing that bothers me about legalizing pot is the farming of herb has a terrible effect on the environment...

Not if they produce hemp, which would dwarf the negative effects you speak of by not only eliminating deforestation but also
possibly reversing of greenhouse effect.

These leaders have no choice but to get on the bandwagon. Full legalization is no longer a pipe dream. It will happen in our lifetime.
I respect that Gupta had enough balls to publicly admit he was wrong.

 

[Original Playa Records]

Great news for science.

 

[Kimchi Papi]

That woman from CO having up to 300 seizures a week & then smoking herb reducing it down to 2-3 is crazy... Good to see someone prominent being able to reexamine their opinion & admitting their wrong. Most of NT could learn from that...

The only thing that bothers me about legalizing pot is the farming of herb has a terrible effect on the environment...

Not if they produce hemp, which would dwarf the negative effects you speak of by not only eliminating deforestation but also
possibly reversing of greenhouse effect.

These leaders have no choice but to get on the bandwagon. Full legalization is no longer a pipe dream. It will happen in our lifetime.
I respect that Gupta had enough balls to publicly admit he was wrong.

In the 3 years after California lift growing restrictions, the growth of grow ops has cause irrevocable damage to the environment. The image or stereo type of the hippie farmer has made way for high volume growth operations bent on growing as much as possible as fast as possible.

Growers have already diverted 18 million gallons of water from a single northern watershed each year further endangering "already endangered" species of salmon. The CAE Dept of Fish & Wildlife already stats the grow op imprint spans the Redwoods, Sierras, & Yosemite where mountain tops have been leveled & forests have been clear cut. These farmers are also diverting streams which is causing havoc & using illegal pesticides.

For anyone that knows, pot is a plant that needs massive amount of water to grow. This country is already feeling the effects of drought with cities in Colorado & Texas that will be out of water for their citizens to use within the next decade.

It's a complex issue (like a lot of things), but anyone that's truly educated about this matter knows the negative impact this can have.

 

[getaway]

In the 3 years after California lift growing restrictions, the growth of grow ops has cause irrevocable damage to the environment. The image or stereo type of the hippie farmer has made way for high volume growth operations bent on growing as much as possible as fast as possible.

Growers have already diverted 18 million gallons of water from a single northern watershed each year further endangering "already endangered" species of salmon. The CAE Dept of Fish & Wildlife already stats the grow op imprint spans the Redwoods, Sierras, & Yosemite where mountain tops have been leveled & forests have been clear cut. These farmers are also diverting streams which is causing havoc & using illegal pesticides.

For anyone that knows, pot is a plant that needs massive amount of water to grow. This country is already feeling the effects of drought with cities in Colorado & Texas that will be out of water for their citizens to use within the next decade.

It's a complex issue (like a lot of things), but anyone that's truly educated about this matter knows the negative impact this can have.

I did not know this. Very interesting.

 

[an dee 51o]

That woman from CO having up to 300 seizures a week & then smoking herb reducing it down to 2-3 is crazy... Good to see someone prominent being able to reexamine their opinion & admitting their wrong. Most of NT could learn from that...

The only thing that bothers me about legalizing pot is the farming of herb has a terrible effect on the environment...

Not if they produce hemp, which would dwarf the negative effects you speak of by not only eliminating deforestation but also
possibly reversing of greenhouse effect.

These leaders have no choice but to get on the bandwagon. Full legalization is no longer a pipe dream. It will happen in our lifetime.
I respect that Gupta had enough balls to publicly admit he was wrong.

In the 3 years after California lift growing restrictions, the growth of grow ops has cause irrevocable damage to the environment. The image or stereo type of the hippie farmer has made way for high volume growth operations bent on growing as much as possible as fast as possible.

Growers have already diverted 18 million gallons of water from a single northern watershed each year further endangering "already endangered" species of salmon. The CAE Dept of Fish & Wildlife already stats the grow op imprint spans the Redwoods, Sierras, & Yosemite where mountain tops have been leveled & forests have been clear cut. These farmers are also diverting streams which is causing havoc & using illegal pesticides.

For anyone that knows, pot is a plant that needs massive amount of water to grow. This country is already feeling the effects of drought with cities in Colorado & Texas that will be out of water for their citizens to use within the next decade.

It's a complex issue (like a lot of things), but anyone that's truly educated about this matter knows the negative impact this can have.

Where your argument fails is that if marijuana becomes legal, it will probably be held to certain standards, like the FDA. Tobacco farms are subject to the FDA, and I would assume that marijuana would be as well. They aren't just gonna make it legal no-holds-barred.

Another thing is that if legalized, people wouldn't have to grow outdoors at all. It is proven that indoor grows have much better results than outdoor. Anyone trying to sell outdoor weed will likely be pushed out by the plethora of indoor growers that will no doubt flood the market. Not to mention, actual farm land would be used to farm MJ. People wouldn't have to hide their grows in the mountains.

 

[an dee 51o]

Anyone who REALLY wants to learn about the real reason for the WAR ON DRUGS should watch a documentary called The House I Live In. One of the main people interviewed is David Simon, the creator of The Wire. It's on Netflix.

Basically there are many industries that are tied to the "War." The prison industry is FOR PROFIT, and benefits from the criminalization of drugs. Police forces are almost wholly funded by fines from drug busts. There is a lot of money in locking people up.

The War on Drugs is mainly class warfare, but there is a definite race factor. At the end of the day, the people who run things don't really care if you're black, white or brown, they don't want you if you're not up to their standards.

 

[Kimchi Papi]

Look, I'll preface my stance by saying I don't smoke but I'm for legalizing pot but it will come with a huge price environmentally. Growing indoors doesn't solve that problem. Again, you still need massive amounts of water and water supplies in many municipalities across the country are in dire straights.

If you grow indoors, you need a rich air supply that constantly needs to be refreshed. Do you know the process of refreshing CO2 & the carbon imprint that brings?

Also, small indoor grow ops used anywhere from 20-30% more power than the average household. Grow lights are sometimes on for 18-20 hours a day. Electrical grids are already over taxed, imagine what massive indoor grow ops would use.

You make it sound like everything will be honkey dory once pot is made legal.

Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In is a great doc, so is his Why We Fight & Freakonomics.