When the history about medical marijuana's path to legitimacy is written, CNN's chief medical reporter Sanjay Gupta, MD, may be more than a footnote. Gupta famously authored a 2009 TIME magazine column decrying efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. In a 180-degree turnabout in August 2013, he issued an apology and said he was wrong. He wrote that he didn't look hard enough at the "remarkable research" indicating that for some illnesses marijuana provided a relief. He told me in this 1:2:1 podcast that while he's cautious about the impact of marijuana on some brain and psychiatric disorders, he feels that the evidence is clear for certain diseases like epilepsy, neuropathic pain and muscle spasms brought on by MS that cannabis has the power to heal.
I wanted to talk to Gupta for this special issue of Stanford Medicine on surgery not only because of his controversial yea-and-nay positions about weed as medicine but because he's also a neurosurgeon who still spends time with patients in and out of the OR between covering health crises around the globe. And in recognition of his clinical and advocacy skills, he was also personally asked by President Obama to consider taking the position of U.S. Surgeon General. (He turned down the offer as the timing just wasn't right for him.)
And what about this new campaign to Just Say Hello that he launched on Oprah.com? He tells me that if we were a friendlier society - neighbor greeting neighbor - perhaps we could heal some of the loneliness out there and become a more civilized society.
I asked Gupta, since he travels internationally, whether there's one universal truth that he finds all human beings seek. "Most everyone wants to do good by their bodies, understand health and how they can improve the health of their family members. I think that the desire for good health and desire for improved function is a universal thing," he told me. And in his storytelling, what impact does he want to make with the viewer? What does he want the audience to understand about the world as seen through his eyes? He said:
If I can explain to them that as the bombs came raining down the same family that was driving their kids to school the day before, grocery shopping after that, stopping at a bank to withdraw some money, that they are now fleeing with whatever few possessions they could garner and run for the border... that they are a lot like families in your own neighborhood… That's really important to me as a reporter.
Previously: Stanford Medicine magazine opens up the world of surgery and The vanishing U.S. surgeon general: A conversation with AP reporter Mike Stobbe
Illustration by Tina Berning
