Marijuana in the Middle
The source I will be analyzing is the interview/video of CNN's "Weed" documentary. Sanjay
Gupta, neurosurgeon and CNN's chief medical correspondent, created a documentary with the mindset
of being against the use of marijuana. Gupta, who changed his mind while in the process of making
documentary on the subject, "weed," found in a search of medical studies from the past year that only 6
percent investigated potential benefits of the drug, rather than its harms. I will first be analyzing the
source from an "Anti-marijuana" point of view that I had gotten from a source from Dr. Paula Riggs.
The documentary conveyed that habitual marijuana smokers were less impaired drivers compared to
occasional smokers — based on a driving test with one extremely active smoker and one who is not.
The documentary clearly promoted the use of smoked “medical” marijuana and did not mention
alternatives. "She is right to criticize the absence of any discussion of Marinol or Sativex. Whereas
Marinol has been largely pooh-poohed by patients for its slow onset and alarming side effects, Sativex
(a whole-plant extract of THC and CBD administered by aerosol spray) is a much better drug which
deserves to be part of the national conversation.(Daw)" The many beneficial claims of health and mind
benefits associated with marijuana were not joined by the scientifically known health risks associated
with marijuana use. From the point of view of a "Pro- Marijuana" analyst one would note that with the
information provided in the documentary that marijuana does not have a high potential for abuse, and
there are very legitimate medical applications. In the source, there was a case of a child named
Charlotte Figi in Colorado. She started having seizures soon after birth. By age 3, she was having 300
seizures a week, regardless of being on seven different prescribed medications. Her parents search for a
type of marijuana that was low in THC, so she could mainly reap the medical benefits of marijuana.
Once she tried the special type of natural marijuana stripped of most of the THC component the
medical marijuana calmed her brain, limiting her seizures to 2 or 3 per month. One can't ignore the
huge number change of seizures this child had that greatly improved the quality of her and her family's
life. Regardless if you have "pro" or "anti" marijuana views, that study should peak someone's interest.
While analyzing this documentary the two main perspectives( pro and anti) on marijuana can be
analyzed to better our knowledge on the topic of medical marijuana.
This source is without a doubt documented from a "pro-marijuana" view. Parts that
strengthened the documentary from my view included multiple parts. One was when they showed two
people who live in the United States who had chronic pain that multiple prescribed medical
prescriptions could not cure. One was a child who had over three hundred plus seizures in a week and
was on several medications that just weren't seeming to help. Her parents had come up with the idea
that she should try medical marijuana based on research they had done themselves. Eventually, after the
struggle of moving to Colorado, trying to get her to be prescribed medical marijuana by two doctors,
and being able to find marijuana with low THC, the Figi family got their daughter Charlotte her new
medicine. It was highly effective. So effective that her three hundred seizures per week got cut down to
2 or 3 per week. The other real life story they put on the directors put on the documentary of a boy who
had chronic pain from a severe diaphragm twitching issue which not only caused him extreme pain, but
also whenever he talked his voice was shaky and he sounded as if he had a robot voice. Previous to his
encounter with medical marijuana, he was taking several prescriptions for his pain and twitching.
Multiple times he ended up in the hospital for either his pain because his highly addictive pills, such as
morphine, would lead him to almost overdose. Not only was he very close to overdosing multiple
times, but the pricing of the pills were hurting his pockets also. His family was very afraid that either he
was going to die from overdosing or he was going to get addicted to the pills. After some research the
family did they found medical marijuana would help his diaphragm spasms. On camera in the
documentary they showed how he sounded before he tried his marijuana, which he was trying his best
to talk normal but he always ended up sounding robotic and showed him in pain. While filming, he
tried some of his medical marijuana and he started talking again and at the start of his sentence he still
sounded robotic, but by the end of the sentence he sounded like a regular person. I was in awe while
watching because of the power that the medical marijuana had on him. He said he no longer was in pain
and he could talk normally. Since then, he has not taking a trip to the hospital for any problems.
However, he did get kicked out of school because he cannot have weed on school property, but he
needs it so he does not feel the pain or twitching.
Citation
Daw, Jeremy. "Paging Dr. Riggs." Cannibus Now. 13 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
<http://cannabisnowmagazine.com/current-events/paging-dr-riggs-2>.
Thurstone, Chris. "Riggs: 'What Was CNN Smokin'?' - Dr. Christian Thurstone." Dr Christian
Thurstone. 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://drthurstone.com/cnn-gupta-weeddocumentary/>.