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...he was being considered for Surgeon General. (With my hearty apologies to the better line: “By the time Mozart was my age… he was dead.”)

Right wing nut jobs (see the above link) are going ballistic over the travesty of appointing a neurosurgeon with a healthy background in communicating with the public to a position whose duties require him to be “America's chief health educator by providing Americans the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury”.

Funny that they didn’t object when the Republican Propaganda Network’s Fox News Network’s Tony Snow was named White House Press Secretary. But enough making fun of the wackos; it’s like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel. 

My compatriots at NORML and other marijuana decriminalization supporters may be discouraged to know that Gupta is already on record saying the usual idiotic things about the current state of our marijuana laws. 

Actually, it’s worse than the typical stuff. He freely admits that the science shows marijuana can be good medicine for Alzeheimer’s, cancer, glaucoma and MS patients to name a few… but still wants to allow states to throw people in jail for simple possession. In fact, he’s seemingly all for it.

<Sigh> 

Well, maybe that’s appropriate for the Surgeon General. After all, it’s a job you can get fired from immediately… if you dare to tell the truth.

[Update: I forgot to include one of my first posts ever... the DEA vs. the American Medical Association on the benefits of medical marijuana.]

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Sanjay Gupta writes an article in Time this week entitled “Why I Would Vote No On Pot”. After stating his thesis that marijuana isn’t very good for you, he goes on:

True, there are health benefits for some patients. Several recent studies, including a new one from the Scripps Research Institute, show that THC, the chemical in marijuana responsible for the high, can help slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease. (In fact, it seems to block the formation of disease-causing plaques better than several mainstream drugs.)

Other studies have shown THC to be a very effective antinausea treatment for people--cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, for example--for whom conventional medications aren't working. And medical cannabis has shown promise relieving pain in patients with multiple sclerosis and reducing intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients.

Wow. That’s actually quite a list of accomplishments from the medical perspective. Alzeheimer’s, cancer, glaucoma and MS patients could benefit from it, but the good doctor still wants to vote “no” because the Colorado and Nevada initiatives “would legalize marijuana irrespective of any medical condition”.

Drug Policy Reformers, please note: we need to always use the word “decriminalize” instead of “legalize” when talking about the subject. Dr. Gupta has caught a classic case of “missing the point”.

Voting “No on Pot”, as Dr. Gupta calls it, means more tax dollars spent incarcerating casual marijuana users. That’s it, end of story. Neither initiative will force Dr. Gupta or anyone else to use marijuana.

And as far as ignoring the reality of imprisoning doctors and their patients for choosing to prescribe and use marijuana for legitimate medical reasons, perhaps Dr. Gupta needs to read this post about the AMA’s position on medical marijuana. Jailing and imprisoning those truly in medical need goes beyond deliberately ignoring what the decriminalization movement is about: it is simply cruel and capricious.  

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