Does Sanjay Gupta's support of medical marijuana really signify a turning point in the debate? By: Brandon Glenn August 19, 2013

Andrea Green's picture

CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD's very public transformation into a proponent of medical marijuana has done more than just inspire late-night talk show hosts to joke that his employer should change its name to the "Cannabis News Network."

It has at least one pundit speculating that the U.S. has arrived at a "tipping point" in which the American is open to legalizing some drugs that had generally been thought of as illicit.

 

- See more at: http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/node/372558#sthash.uHsYWuCW.CQ4zxv3U.dpuf

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  I forgive ya Doc! But then

DeSwiss2's picture

  I forgive ya Doc! But then I have no power to judge you anyway. I gave it up. But please, don't pee on my leg and tell me that its raining, okay?

This is a lot like after having lied to your kids about Santa Claus all these years and now the truth is out and they know! So the parents are just standing there snickering and looking like idiots. But instead of the kids questioning Mom and Dad about their apparent lies AND the conspiracy all these years, they skip straight to the end and just say, ''Well finally! We know the truth!''

The problem with viewing things this way is that it glosses over all the evidence to the contrary that has existed for years. And it assumes that there was an air-tight case for Santa's existence all along. But somehow the parents had gotten it all wrong. So they didn't really lie to the kids, they were just ''mistaken.'' Of course this doesn't wash because the evidence that a fat guy couldn't climb down chimneys and deliver toys and goodies were always fairly clear to most people. Even the kids questioned it, until they were reassured (lied to) by their parents that a terribly obese man with rosy cheeks could indeed shinny down their sooty 'ol chimney (or whatever tiny openings that were available) and come out smelling like gingerbread cookies and cinnamon apple cider!

So like with Santa, instead of allowing centuries of practical and actual use and experience with cannabis to be our guide, we allow its use to be ''controlled'' by experience-trumping authorities who know much more than us. I mean, they're the experts, right? They got science and everything!

Problem was, they don't know that much and they ain't all that expert as this case proves. And yet their credentials go un-besmirched. And the research has been around for a very long time as well. Dr. Gupta could lie that it didn't exist if he wasn't looking for it. Now couldn't he? But even now, their ''authority'' still remains unquestioned. All that pain and suffering. All those needless deaths that may never have occurred had research and/or use of cannabis been legal all those years ago. Who takes responsibility for them, Dr. Gupta?

No, I'm afraid that Dr. Gupta hasn't come clean enough, but I guess its a start. Clearly with public pressure now overwhelmingly in favor of not only medical use of cannabis, but for its decriminalization of every kind, this has convinced CNN to reposition themselves into a more favorable light with viewers. After towing the line, and telling the LIES all these years and looking the other way, because it was in their financial interest to do so. Now they just say: ''Whoops, sorry!''

The liquor companies, the beer companies, and the pharmaceutical companies no doubt owe a great debt to the mass media for their complicity in withholding the beneficial information concerning cannabis all these decades. And yet I expect that they too will soon join the madding crowds to add cannabis to the repertoire of products and services they sell in someway in order to monetize it. After all. that's the American way.

~DeSwiss

I'm sorry, but you are sadly mistaken

TheFlashRon's picture

I'm sorry, but you are sadly mistaken; not once have I ever heard a CNN reporter apologize for prior indiscretions.

I must say I like your style. A lot.

Blessings on your path