• Home
  • MJNews @PRNewswire
  • MJChannelOne
  • MJBA.net
  • MJHeadlineNews
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • MJBA PR

MJNews Network

"The Voice of Legal Cannabis Since 2013"

  • Home
  • Business
  • MJNews by PRNewswire
  • Legal
  • Events
  • BlPOC in Cannabis
  • MJBAPR
  • MJAdnet
You are here: Home / Legal / Decriminalization / Sirota: Applauding a former drug warrior’s contrition

Sirota: Applauding a former drug warrior’s contrition

August 25, 2013 by MJ News Network Leave a Comment

COLORADO: Whether it is the impeached Bill Clinton leaving office with solid approval ratings or the once-disgraced Eliot Spitzer now surging in New York City electoral polls, there is ample evidence that America forgives public figures for their transgressions. And yet, contrition is not exactly common on the public stage. Like the Fonz from “Happy Days,” today’s media stars, politicians and celebrities often have trouble saying the words “I was wrong” or “I am sorry” — even when they have made obvious mistakes and when apologies are clearly necessary.

Such a pervasive hostility to self-reproach is one of the big reasons that the recent mea culpa from CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta is so significant. Indeed, his apology for previously advocating marijuana prohibition is a critical reminder not just that the Drug War is misguided, but also that public figures bear a special responsibility to admit mistakes. Why? Because when they refuse to admit error, they allow destructive misperceptions to persist in the larger population.

Gupta, you may recall, was one of America’s most well-known and influential drug warriors. As a physician with a cable television platform, he gained political notoriety, in part, by adding the credibility of his medical degrees to his ideological jeremiads against legalizing medicinal marijuana. But this month, in an essay entitled “Why I changed my mind on weed,” the good doctor renounced his opposition to medicinal marijuana and asked for forgiveness for misleading so many Americans about the therapeutic merits of cannabis.

“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States (about marijuana), and I apologize for my own role in that,” he wrote in the essay that previewed his new CNN documentary called “Weed.”

In exploring why he got the story of marijuana so wrong, Gupta admitted to making an assumption that is all too prevalent in 21st-century journalism: He admitted to simply trusting the federal government, without verifying whether the government’s prohibitionist policy is based on facts.

“I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof,” he wrote.

“Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have ‘no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse.’ (But) they didn’t have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true. It doesn’t have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works.”

The new Gupta is, of course, absolutely correct in his assessment. Yes, the Drug War has been an epic and expensive failure that has ruined far too many lives. Yes, marijuana does have medicinal value. And yes, it is a perverse form of Reefer Madness for science-averse politicians to continue preventing patients from getting marijuana because those politicians still associate pot with the hippies they loathed in the 1960s.

In issuing such a self-critical apology, Gupta has shown genuine courage. As a television correspondent, he knows full well that the media’s “gotcha!” machine may ridicule him for flip-flopping, and further, that some in his audience will see his reversal as proof that his reporting should never be trusted again.

Filed Under: Decriminalization, Legal, Medical Marijuana, Recreational Tagged With: Bill Clinton, changing attitudes, David Sirota, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, ending federal prohibition, failed war on drugs

About MJ News Network

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with Us!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

Top Stories

Ohio Board of Pharmacy Publishes Updated Patient & Caregiver Numbers for June 2022

OHIO:  The State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy published updated patient & caregiver numbers for June 2022.  These numbers include: 526,255 Recommendations 285,621 Registered patients 18,058 Patients with Veteran Status 19,536 Patients with Indigent Status 1,122 Patients with a Terminal Diagnosis 148,950 Patients with both an active registration and an active recommendation 265,520 Unique patients Read the full article…

Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency Recognizes 21 Qualifiers in New Social Equity All-Star Program

MICHIGAN: The Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) announced this week the first approved gold qualifier through the Social Equity All-Star Program, a new initiative to encourage cannabis industry licensees to be proactive in their diversity, equity, and inclusion campaigns. In addition to the first gold qualifier, the agency also announced the first 20 bronze qualifiers in Read the full article…

OLCC Commissioners Plan to Tighten “Change of Ownership” Option

Bad actors won’t get easy off-ramp to sell their businesses OREGON:  The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) has grown tired of “bad actors” gaming the system when they’re caught breaking the law or violating OLCC rules, so Commissioners plan to crack down on that group of licensees by limiting their ability to monetize their Read the full article…

Mammoth Labs Cannabis Golf Tournament is August 6th, 2022 in Roslyn, WA

MAMMOTH LABS CANNABIS GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP August 06, 2022 Suncadia Resort – Roslyn, Wa STREAMING MJNEWS POWERED BY PR NEWSWIRE

OLCC Task Force on Cannabis-Derived Intoxicants and Illegal Cannabis Production

  Task Force on Cannabis-Derived Intoxicants and Illegal Cannabis Production Cannabinoid Subcommittee Meeting Notice AGENDA 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM Tuesday, August 2, 2022 Location: Virtual – Microsoft Teams meeting Click here to join the meeting on Teams Or call in (audio only) 323-553-3576; Passcode: 282 099 157#   TURN ON. TUNE IN. CATCH THE Read the full article…

Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency Recognizes 21 Qualifiers in New Social Equity All-Star Program

OLCC Commissioners Plan to Tighten “Change of Ownership” Option

Mammoth Labs Cannabis Golf Tournament is August 6th, 2022 in Roslyn, WA

Tags

CA California Canada cannabis cannabis news CBD changing attitudes CO Colorado DC decriminalization dispensary District of Columbia end failed war on drugs end of failed war on drugs failed war on drugs Hemp I-502 legal cannabis legalization legal marijuana legal pot shop marijuana marijuana business medical cannabis medical marijuana mjlegal mjnews MJNews Network mjnewsnetwork.com mmj New York NORML NY OH Ohio OR Oregon politicians on pot recreational marijuana the business of cannabis the business of marijuana WA Washington WSLCB

Search By State:

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming

© Copyright 2014 MJBA Publishing · MJ News Network · All Rights Reserved ·