Video: Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Marijuana, We’ve Been Terribly Misled, DEA Has No Scientific Basis

Dr. Sanjay Gupta made a huge statement for cannabis reform, when he appeared on Piers Morgan last night and apologized on air for opposing marijuana legalization in 2009.

“I have and part of my thinking/reason, I’ve apologized for some of the earlier reporting. I think we’ve been terribly and systematically misled in this country for some time and I did part of that misleading… I took the DEA at their word when they said it was a Schedule I substance and has no medical applications. There was no scientific basis for them to say that.” Dr. Gupta said.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta then goes on, along with Piers Morgan, to deal with hypocritical and inconsistent statements from Howard Samuels, “a recovering drug addict who, guess what, owns a drug rehabilitation center, the Hills.”

I can’t stress enough how critical it is to cannabis reform for mainstream America to see the Piers Morgans and Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s of the world not only talk about cannabis; but that they stress how wrong the current system of prohibition is, everyone in America is talking about it, and it’s not going away.

Please share this video with friends and family still on the fence or laden with misinformation who would take more credence from these well known and trusted public figures.

Video Highlights from Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Piers Morgan

• Piers: “You’ve been looking at this for a year and I want to remind you in 2009 you wrote a Time magazine article entitled ‘Why I Would Vote No on Pot’. You’ve change your mind?” [0:20 mark]
• Sanjay: “I have and part of my thinking/reason, I’ve apologized for some of the earlier reporting. I think we’ve been terribly and systematically misled in this country for some time and I did part of that misleading.” [0:30 mark]
• Sanjay: “You know if you look at all the papers that are written in the United States about marijuana the vast majority of them about the harm. We fund studies on harm, we don’t fund studies on benefits nearly as much, so it gives a distorted picture, but you know I didn’t look far enough, I didn’t look deep enough, I didn’t look at labs in other countries that are doing some incredible research, I didn’t listen to the chorus of patients who said not only does marijuana work for me, it’s the only thing that works for me.” [0:45 mark]
• Sanjay: “I took the DEA at their word when they said it was a Schedule I substance and has no medical applications. There was no scientific basis for them to say that.” [1:10 mark]
• Dr. Gupta’s (surprised) reply on NYC Mayor Bloomberg calling medical marijuana the greatest hoax of all time, simply urges Bloomberg to look at the scientific papers, the science is there, it’s not conjecture, it’s a drug used for thousands of years [1:20 mark]
• Dr. Gupta shares a story of how well and how quickly medicinal cannabis can work (less than a minute) to treat a rare diaphragm disorder unlike a ‘table full of meds’ prescribed by doctors, including oxycontin and valium, which didn’t even work [2:00 mark]
• Howard Samuels, the rehabber spreading misinformation to continue profiting from prohibition, is brought on to ‘debate’ with Dr. Sanjay Gupta (watching Howard take a soft / back-peddling stance is pure joy) [3:50 mark]
• Piers: “If it’s no more harmful than alcohol or tobacco, why shouldn’t it be legalized, isn’t there an inconsistency in government policy?” [5:34 mark]
• Sanjay: “I think so and let me take it a step further than that. I think it’s irresponsible of the medical community not to offer this as an alternative. Two points. First, these other medications we talk about for pain for example morphine, dilaudid, oxycontin, vicadin… you name it, every 19 minutes in this country Piers, in the United States, someone dies of an accidental prescription drug overdose. This is no joke, every 19 minutes. As we investigate this, I couldn’t find one documented case of someone dying from a marijuana overdose. We also know that for some situations, like neuropathic pain, which is that lancinating terrible pain people can get in their limbs and extremities… sometimes marijuana is the only thing that can actually work.”  [5:41 mark]
• Piers: “I known someone with cancer who has used it [cannabis] and it had huge beneficial effects. I mean my point to you Howard Summers is this: I’m going to make a shocking revelation here, I’ve tried cannabis when I was a younger lad and I’ve also had to have vicadin when I broke some ribs falling off embarrassingly a Segway in Santa Monica and I can tell you that it was the vicadin, which I was prescribed by my doctor, which gave me a massively higher high that the cannabis ever did. I couldn’t see the logic between making the vicadin a legally prescribed drug and making cannabis this demonized drug… explain to me the difference.” [6:23 mark]
• Unlike his prior CNN ‘debate’ with Cheryl Shuman, Howard wonderfully starts back-peddling and caveating his reefer madness stance on cannabis, including hands down agreeing that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, vicadin. [7:00 mark]
• Piers: [to Howard] “Let me ask you this then… right, I think you’re slightly softening your position from what I last spoke to you. Unless I’m wrong, the logical extension of your argument is that we should be banning all sorts of prescription drugs, probably alcohol as well and tobacco. They should all be banned as well as cannabis because the logical… where the key of your argument.” [7:40 mark]
• Howard: “No…no” followed by more back-peddling and he never owns up to the fact who is he to decide that much-less-harmful cannabis should be illegal, yet he (or the government) can arbitrarily pick other more harmful drugs to be legal [8:03 mark]
• Sanjay: Dr. Gupta shares he’s tried cannabis, although it’s not for him. [8:50 mark]
• Sanjay: “Right now it’s [cannabis] listed as the most dangerous substance, it’s in the category of most dangerous (Piers: “which is ridiculous”) in America. I think the addiction is possibly real, about 9 %. To put it in context, cocaine is about 20%, that’s actually considered less dangerous than marijuana. Alcohol has a higher rate of addiction. Smoking, 30 percent and that leads to far more deaths than marijuana, so it’s just… I just don’t quite understand the moral equivalence the doctor [Samuels] is making here.” [9:28 mark]
• Howard: “I’m not saying marijuana is more dangerous than cocaine, of course it’s not.” Howard tries more empty excuses and Piers jumps in alcohol and tobacco are worse as well, you’re being inconsistent on legalization. [9:58 mark]
• Sanjay: “Look, I’m not quite sure I follow the doctor’s [Samuels] argument’s here. I think it’s a potentially very effective medicine that has not been given a fair shake for 70 years in this country. I think it can treat things that other medicines that exist now that are far more dangerous, far more toxic, lead to far more deaths, can not treat. It’s bizarre to me quite frankly, I think it’s inhumane to these patients, who can’t get this treatment.” [10:54 mark]
• Sanjay: “It is irresponsible, I think, of the medical community not to have this as an option. I have children, I don’t them getting loaded as he [Samuels] says on this stuff either, that’s not the point. The point is that we’re trying to help take care of people and we should not take marijuana off the table as an option here” [11:30 mark]
• Howard: “I totally agree with you, but we shouldn’t legalize it so our kids have an option to get loaded [11:46 mark] 

Post Howard Samuels ‘debate’ update:

Piers and Sanjay talk further afterwards on Howard Samuels’ statements. Dr. Gupta sums it up perfectly with, “So much that he was saying simply wasn’t true. First of all, his comparison to alcohol and prescription medication and saying it was far worse… it’s just not true… We know there are medical benefits, I’ve seen the studies with my own eyes here in the United States and around the world.”

At the end of the day, Samuel’s has two circular arguments, both of which are utter child’s play to dismiss:

1. We shouldn’t legalize another drug. Once again, it’s less harmful than alcohol, tobacco, all the crazy prescription pain killers. Who the fuck is Howard Samuels or the government, to tell American citizens and/or their doctors, what belongs in our bodies?
2. Legalizing will make access a joke for our children and we want them to use cannabis. How many times do we have to say we want a regulated market to keep it out of childrens’ hands? This has been debunked because of years of legal medical marijuana, where it has been proven children use cannabis less, not more, and it’s tougher to get. Check out these 6 studies all confirming this, from sources like the American Journal of Public Health and Brown University.

Prohibitionists, the public has already turned against you in the polls and more and more thought leaders are doing the same. Eric Holder is now starting to soften his and the federal government’s stance as well. Your move. What else do you have left? Bring on the next empty scare tactic to debunk.

August 8th Update from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent:

• CNN: Why I changed my mind on weed