Last night, as part of the ongoing “AC 360″ series on marijuana, Dr. Sanjay Gupta weighed in on marijuana’s medical benefits and health risks. The transcript of the show is here (scroll down about 2/3 through the page to get to Dr. Gupta).

It’s no secret that we haven’t always been thrilled by CNN’s coverage, but Gupta — given time constraints that inevitably truncated his answers a bit — gave a balanced, accurate assessment of the science of marijuana that was remarkably solid, much more so than one usually sees on TV. Among other things, Gupta explained about the cannabinoid receptors in the human brain and noted:

For example, someone who’s having terrible malnourishment or terrible nausea as a result of chemotherapy or the effect of HIV/AIDS, using marijuana could stimulate appetite.

 Neuropathic pain, Anderson, something I deal with quite a bit as a neurosurgeon. It’s that lancinating nerve pain that’s often caused by trauma or some sort of injury or surgery. Sometimes it can be very refractive to pain medications. Marijuana can help there, as well.

Multiple sclerosis, something else that I treat. That’s something that can cause significant tremors, for example. Marijuana can help. [Read more →]

On Thursday night’s edition of “Anderson Cooper 360,” former drug czar John Walters and I were interviewed separately about a new government report claiming an increase in average potency of marijuana seized by law enforcement (we’ll have a video link posted soon). I pointed out an obvious fact: When the marijuana is more potent, users smoke less, just as people typically drink a much smaller quantity of bourbon than of beer. Thus, higher-potency marijuana doesn’t necessarily mean users take in more THC. And, given that the most significant health issue connected to marijuana is the respiratory harm from smoke, smoking less to get the same effect is clearly healthier.

Asked about this, Walters said flatly, “There is no evidence of that.”

He lied. I know this won’t be a huge shock to faithful readers of this blog, but I think it’s worth putting the facts on the record. [Read more →]

MPP’s Bruce Mirken will appear on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ tonight to add a little rationality to the latest pronouncement regarding rising THC levels in marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded Marijuana Potency Project.

Drug warriors love to exaggerate small increases in marijuana potency over time and make vague proclamations linking those increases to increases in marijuana’s potential danger, even though no credible research supports such a connection. Of course, if they were truly concerned about the potential danger of higher potency marijuana, then they should favor regulating the drug and requiring manufacturers to label the product’s potency, just as we do with alcohol.

The show is scheduled to air tonight at 10 p.m. EST, but the hysteria surrounding one of the drug warriors’ favorite imaginary fears is sure to last much longer.

Last November, I mentioned here that I’d undergone treatment for prostate cancer  – implantation of 85 tiny, radioactive seeds designed to zap the tumor before it zaps me. I’m happy to report that, six months later, it seems to have worked, according to the latest lab tests. Though the risk of recurrence never goes away entirely, I’m as close as one can be to being an official cancer survivor.

Endless thanks to all who sent kind thoughts. And since someone is bound to ask: No, I didn’t ever need medical marijuana. My treatment was happily quite low-impact: no chemo, no nausea, no hair loss, etc. I almost feel like I should refer to it as Cancer Lite, it was so comparatively easy. 

But the point I made last November still remains. If I had needed medical marijuana, that decision should have been between me and my doctor. Cops and politicians have no place in medical treatment decisions.

In what turns out, sadly, to be the last episode of CNN’s “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News,” aired Mar. 28 and 29, D.L. devoted a large block of the show to proposals to make marijuana a legally regulated and taxed product for adult consumption. The first segment included an interview with yours truly, followed by Ronald Brooks of the Narcotic Officers Associations Coalition, who wants to keep arresting and jailing marijuana users.

Something is stirring in the U.S. news media that I was beginning to think I’d never see: In last two or three months, a complete rethinking of our marijuana laws has become a legitimate issue in the eyes of the mainstream media — something it hasn’t been for a long time.

To illustrate how big this is, let me take you back to early 2002, shortly after I started as MPP’s communications director. The first time I ever called CNN to try to pitch them a story on marijuana policy, it went like this: [Read more →]

“If something is not legal, you can’t regulate it very effectively.”

            – Prof. Robin Room, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne

On October 2, the Global Cannabis Commission, a group of top scientists commissioned by the Beckley Foundation, issued its groundbreaking report, “Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate.” Your faithful correspondent was able to attend the daylong seminar in which the report was discussed, held in the distinctly imposing Moses Room of the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster.

This is a highly condensed summary of the 175-page report. I wrote a lengthier summary here, and the full document can be downloaded here.

The report was written by five leading marijuana and drug policy researchers: Benedikt Fischer of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland, and three Australians: Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland, Simon Lenton of the National Drug Research Institute at the Curtin University of Technology, and Robin Room of the University of Melbourne. A number of other important researchers joined the discussion (and contributed advice and research to the report).

Some highlights: [Read more →]

Every year around this time,  Project Censored recognizes the 25 “most censored” news stories from the prior year — stories of great public significance that got little or no attention from the mass media. This year, they’ve honored MPP and NORML’s Paul Armentano for pointing out the alarming rise in marijuana arrests.

Since The Project Censored materials were written, the latest FBI Uniform Crime Reports survey has been released, showing yet another marijuana arrest record.