Pubdate: Mon, 12 Aug 2013
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/pm4R4dI4
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author: David Bauder, Associated Press
Page: C-6

CNN'S GUPTA NOW OKS MARIJUANA USE

NEW YORK (AP) - CNN's Sanjay Gupta says he spoke too soon in opposing 
the medical use of marijuana in the past and that he now believes the 
drug can have very real benefits for people with specific health problems.

Dr. Gupta, the network's chief medical correspondent and a brain 
surgeon, detailed his change of heart in an interview Friday and in 
an article for CNN's website titled "Why I changed my mind on weed." 
He narrates a documentary on the topic that aired on the network Sunday.

He wrote in Time magazine in 2009 about his opposition to laws that 
would make the drug available for medical purposes. "Smoking the 
stuff is not going to do your health any good," he wrote then. But 
Dr. Gupta said Friday he too easily associated marijuana with 
"malingerers that just wanted to get high."

Now he wants to say he's sorry.

Dr. Gupta said he didn't look hard enough at research on the topic 
and found some new research that had been done since then. He was 
encouraged to look into the issue further upon meeting a 5-year-old 
girl in Colorado for whom medical marijuana has sharply cut down on 
the amount of seizures she had been suffering.

Time spent with her and others made him realize that medical 
professionals should be responsible for providing the best care 
possible, and that could include marijuana.

"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.

The preponderance of the research done in the United States about 
marijuana is about what harm it could do. He said he's found more 
research overseas that discusses the medical benefits.

While people die regularly from prescription drug overdoses, Dr. 
Gupta said he has been unable to find a documented case of death from 
a marijuana overdose.

Dr. Gupta said he doesn't want people to apply his change of heart to 
the issue of recreational marijuana use. As a father, he said he 
wouldn't allow his children to smoke marijuana until they are adults. 
If they want to, he'd urge them to wait until their mid-20s when 
their brains are fully developed, because of studies that show the 
drug can damage young people.

But he said a prevalent attitude that people who want to use the drug 
for medicinal purposes are really interested in getting high is one 
of the things that holds back the widespread use of it for health reasons.

"I do think it's good to separate the two of them," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom