Gupta, Sanjay Dr. ” Why I changed my mind on weed”. CNN.com. CNN, 08 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 Jul. 2015
CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana/
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent and author of “Why I changed my mind on weed”, published by CNN. com August 2013. In his article Dr. Gupta expresses how a more in-depth look into pot, changed his perspective on the topic . Having went along with the narrative that marijuana deserves to be on the DEA’s schedule one substance list, Gupta was surprised and disappointed that pots’ benefits have been kept in the dark.
According to Gupta, the way that marijuana is perceived in this country is unfairly skewed, partly because of the lack of studies proving its benefits. During his research into the topic, Gupta found that only 6% of marijuana studies conducted within the United States investigate its pros, making a “highly distorted picture” when looking at weed. Even if someone wants to study marijuana in a scholarly fashion, you need weed and approval from the government; which is extremely hard to come by, Gupta states. The National Institute on Drug Abuse is the reigning champ when it comes to drug studies, and more often than not they only focus on the negative effects. This blatant disregard for what marijuana can offer is what has shaped the anti-marijuana mind in America.
Furthering his research, Gupta came across a young child, that since birth has been riddled with horrible seizures. Colorado native Charlotte Figi, was up to 300 seizures a week until marijuana came into the picture and reduced that to just a few a month. The automatic criminalization of marijuana makes it difficult for success stories like this to be heard. For the medical community to turn a deaf ear on the pros of pot is, “irresponsible”, in Gupta’s opinion. More over, Gupta writes, the potentiality of abuse is very limited, making marijuana what it is intended to be; harmless.
Going deeper into the history of marijuana in the U.S., Dr. Gupta comes to the startling realization that marijuana was only to be a schedule one substance until more in depth research had been conducted. Dr. Roger Egeberg, the Assistant Health Secretary during the 70s, was the person who deemed marijuana addictive. As Gupta dug deeper he came to the conclusion that science had absolutely nothing to do with the decision, but the “absence of science”. Considering that its been 40+ years since that report, Gupta believes that it is past time for the reevaluation of marijuana.
Because of Dr. Gupta’s own due diligence with the subject marijuana, this makes him the perfect candidate as a back bone for my own research into the topic. The fact that he reached out of his comfort zone and allowed himself to turn away from conventional thinking, is what drew me to him. I believe my classmates would find his outlook on pot useful, because he is an academic, a doctor, someone who knows their stuff, but isn’t too knowing to not learn any more.
The opinion of your author is incredibly interesting to me because Dr. Gupta works for such a respected outlet such as CNN. I was not aware that such a small amount of studies have gone into researching the benefits of marijuana but, that number does make sense since examining an illegal substance might give less credibility to the people conducting the study. This is a really great source for your research.
I really found this source interesting. I knew people could have seizures frequently, but not as near as much as the child did. For the child to have gone from 300 seizures a week to only a few a MONTH proves how great marijuana is.I’m glad you did your research study on it otherwise I may never knew.