Gupta´s excuse for pro-pot stance

National and international media have made a lot of fuss about American doctor Sanjay Gupta´s, “repentance” re. his earlier “negative” views on marijuana.

Once upon a time the doctor used to be opposed to so-called “medical” marijuana (which, by the way has nothing to do with medicine as smoking marijuana has not been approved as a medicine anywhere, neither by the U.S. FDA nor by their international counterparts. So what does the” contribution” by Gupta´s “repentance” entail ? Nothing – apart from the fact that potheads now has got a new pot ally.

As pointed out by DWI (Drug Watch International) President John Coleman, Once upon a time Gupta was considered for the position of Surgeon General by the Obama administration several years ago but he withdrew his name from consideration. At the time, the medical blogs were filled with derogatory information linking Gupta to big drug manufacturers like Merck & Co. He reportedly used his CNN television celebrity status to argue that Merck’s Vioxx drug was safe and he minimized its risk for causing or contributing to an excessive number of heart attacks. In 2004, an FDA official testified before Congress that “28,000 excess cases of heart attack or sudden cardiac death were caused by Vioxx.” The official estimated that, overall, a range of 88,000 to 139,000 Americans might have been exposed to excessive risks from this drug (“Of these, 30-40% probably died. For the survivors, their lives were changed forever.”) Despite Gupta’s support, Merck was convicted of a criminal charge of illegally introducing a drug into interstate commerce, a technical violation pertaining to the company’s sale of Vioxx. Merck paid a fine of $950 million to settle its civil and criminal cases with the U.S. Department of Justice. On the civil side, Merck has thus far paid out $4.5 billion to resolve lawsuits related to victims of its Vioxx painkiller drug.

It remains to be seen if Gupta´s current support for marijuana as a medicine is as reliable as his previous support for Merck & Co’s Vioxx.