Pubdate: Sat, 10 Aug 2013
Source: Republican & Herald (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact:  http://republicanherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1047
Author: David Bauder, Associated Press

CNN'S GUPTA SAYS HE WAS WRONG ABOUT MARIJUANA

Doctor Says Drug Helpful for Some Patients

NEW YORK (AP) - CNN's Dr. 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.

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 will 
narrate a documentary on the topic that will air 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 Gupta said Friday he too easily associated marijuana with 
"malingerers that just wanted to get high."

Now he wants to say he's sorry.

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, Gupta 
said he's been unable to find a documented case of death from a 
marijuana overdose.

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